CharIN launches Megawatt Charging System at EVS35 Oslo

CharIN is a global non-profit association dedicated to establishing the Combined Charging System (CCS) - a unified charging system for electric vehicles. They are responsible for establishing many standards and solutions currently used by electric car drivers. For example Plug & Charge recently announced by VW is part of a wider project designed by CharIN in partnership with the likes of VW, BMW and Stellantis. Charging Map is another global undertaking to map all of the CCS charging points available around the world.

Standardizing global infrastructure is a mighty task, especially when it comes to commercial and heavy duty vehicles. Our drive to electrify the transport only starts with passenger cars. We have entire fleets of trucks, ships and then airplanes to worry about. Commercial vehicles need much larger batteries, which need much higher voltages - otherwise charging times will be counted in days not hours. CharIN understood the infrastructure issue early and started development of the charging standard back in 2018.

After 4 years of development the Megawatt Charging System is ready and it has just been presented to the world at the EVS35 in Oslo, Norway. The organization had to design a system that is safe to operate by a driver or a technician while handling in excess of 1,000V. This high voltage is required to keep the charging times for large commercial batteries as short as we are used to on passenger cars.

The new system supports up to 1,250V voltages and it can deliver a maximum current of 3,000A - that’s potentially 3,750kW charging power. For comparison, the highest powered passenger car DC charging comes at 360kW courtesy of ABB Terra360. The difference in power output is tremendous and yet the system can be operated just as a normal DC charging station.

MCS will be a new global standard just as CCS is now for passenger cars. The system is being live tested now in Germany on long haul trucks. Another test site for public electric truck charging is to be opened in Portland, Oregon. The system will serve trucks and buses with more than 1MW charging rates. Another part of the MCS standard is positioning of charging ports on the vehicles - all manufacturers will position the port on the left side of the vehicles to ensure cables can always reach the port.

MCS is not just a connector, it’s the entire system that is designed for global deployment. The really interesting part here is the V2X capability of bi-directional charging. Just like in passenger cars we have V2L - the commercial vehicles will be able to become small power plants capable of powering not just a house for a few hours but for example a small hospital. Electric fire engine will be able to supply emergency power from its batteries just as it used to by using a generator.

MCS will also come with a CCS adaptor, most likely combining two CCS plugs to charge one MCS vehicle. The progress is relentless, technology is marching ahead and lengthy charging sessions might soon be a thing of a past regardless of your vehicle's battery capacity.

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