America still lags behind China’s EV charging tech
Although the EV charging network in the United States is growing at a record pace, China is leading the way when it comes to actual charging speeds. Earlier this year, BYD announced the rollout of new chargers in China with charging speeds of up to one megawatt (1,000 kW); these can add 250 miles of range in just five minutes.
That’s far faster than the 350-kW fast chargers that are more common in America, but ChargePoint—one of the nation’s largest charging networks—is set to bridge the gap next year with the country’s fastest chargers. They won’t hit 1,000 kW, but they’ll be quicker than anything else we have presently.
600-kW Chargers Arriving Next Year
According to USA Today, ChargePoint’s new 600-kW DC fast chargers will start arriving next year—that’s 100 kW more than the fastest available chargers in the country, from startup Gravity. CEO and President of ChargePoint, Rick Wilmer, has heralded the new chargers as “a major innovation.”
Not only will the new chargers result in quicker charging times for compatible EVs, but Wilmer said they’ll “dramatically reduce the size of chargers for the same amount of power they deliver” relative to current charger designs. This improves efficiency and electrical costs, benefitting both EV owners and charging station hosts. Eaton, a global power management company, will work with ChargePoint to connect these chargers to the grid.
Whereas existing DC fast chargers can get a modern EV’s battery from 10% to 80% in under an hour, ChargePoint’s new chargers drop that time to 10 minutes or less. That doesn’t match the five-minute charge time of China’s best chargers, but it’s still a notable improvement over current charge times.
Related: What do Level 1, Level 2 and DC fast charging (Level 3) mean?
Maximum EV Charging Speeds Are Much Lower
Volvo
The fastest charging speeds rely not only on the charging station, but also on how quickly individual EVs can charge. Right now, no EV will be able to take full advantage of ChargePoint’s blazing new chargers.
The Lucid Gravity is the fastest-charging EV you can buy, with speeds of up to 400 kW, while a few models like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 can hit 350 kW; for most of a single fast-charging session, you won’t even hit these advertised peaks. Most EVs also don’t yet have 800-volt architectures, which are required to hit high charging speeds. The upcoming BMW iX3 will have an 800-volt architecture, but even this ultra-modern new EV can only achieve charging speeds of up to 400 kW.
Ultimately, it will be a while before ChargePoint’s 600-kW chargers have a decent number of models that can fully utilize them, but by starting now, the network will get a headstart over competing networks.
Related: ChargePoint’s Latest EV Charging Tech Revealed
Final Thoughts
According to data from State Of Charge, ChargePoint had the third-biggest DC fast-charging network in the USA as of July this year, with a 7.6% share. That’s far behind Tesla (a 54.6% share) but close to Electrify America (8.3%). Rather than try to compete in terms of size, ChargePoint looks like it will be the first to support charging speeds of up to 600 kW.
These new chargers will only realize their full potential when enough EVs arrive that can support ultra-fast charging, and there are no solid plans for such EVs to be launched anytime soon. How soon this will change is still up in the air, but at the very least, the United States is taking steps to match the latest charging tech found in other regions.
