Automotive

New EV charger pushes half a megawatt – but only one car can take it

The first Mercedes-Benz Charging Hub to use Chargepoint's new ultra-high speed DC chargers is now open in Georgia
Mercedes-Benz
The first Mercedes-Benz Charging Hub to use Chargepoint's new ultra-high speed DC chargers is now open in Georgia
Mercedes-Benz

Chargepoint has begun "large scale deployment" of it new Express Plus Power Link 2000, a DC charging station capable of delivering up to 500 kW – twice as fast as Tesla's V3 Supercharger. The only issue is we only know of one car that can handle it.

The chargers are being rolled out as part of the Mercedes-Benz HPC NA network, and consist of "Power Blocks" housing up to five "Power Modules" that send electricity to "Power Link" stations, where you can plug your car in.

The new Power Blocks can feed up to half a megawatt to a given Power Link, which can charge up to two cars simultaneously. But if only one is plugged in, the liquid-cooled cables and "proprietary cooling architecture" are ready to handle a full 500-kW charge for "sustained periods of time" – although realistically it'll only hit this kind of speed briefly when sending electrons into an empty battery.

Or not at all – Mercedes-Benz will be running these machines at a maximum of 400 kW, since its EQS electric flagship can only handle charge rates up to 207 kW. The Porsche Taycan and Audi E-Tron GT, for their part, can handle up to 270 kW, and the Lucid Air, which topped Car and Driver's 2022 EV charging speed test, peaks at nearly 300 kW, a decent chunk faster than the Tesla Model S Plaid at 250 kW.

So Chargepoint's new ultra-fast charger is more about simultaneous fast-charging of two existing cars, and future-proofing for the next 5-10 years, than it is about delivering a service that anyone really needs right now.

Well, unless you own a Rimac Nevera – which along with smashing some 23 production car acceleration and braking records in one day earlier this year, and setting the world record for the highest speed in reverse just last week, is also ready to handle charge rates up to half a megawatt according to founder and CEO Mate Rimac.

The first of Mercedes-Benz's ultra high speed Charging Hubs is located at the company's USA headquarters in Sandy Springs, Georgia, and open to vehicles of all brands. The company has committed more than US$1 billion to deliver at least 400 charging hubs across North America, and 2,500 chargers, by 2030.

Source: Chargepoint

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4 comments
Gizmowiz
The Kia EV6 can handle 350. Did you forget about them. Hyundai can too.
Jinpa
There are costs to speed and convenience, for EVs in the form of charging heat, which saps battery life. If OEMs aren't already limiting battery-life warranties as a function of such fast, high-amp high temp charging, expect it sooner than later. EVs and charging stations tattle such events. Insurers of any stripe don't like above-average risks. Read the book The Age Of Surveillance Capitalism, by Prof. Shoshana Zuboff, for ways such data is gathered, parsed and sold.
Jinpa
Use it and shorten the car battery's lifetime.
MQ
But we are co dtantly told that limited battery life is a thing of the past... Positive spin states "decades" to mean 14-16 years (how long anyone has been manufacturing a real world use, series production EV), while the reality is, we are still only in gen 1.5 of the EV rollout. Mate may love the idea of fast charginh his Dragracer, but who pays for the coolong costs (energy) this is surely an undersold side effect of this industry.