Heavy trucks and fully electric buses will not be widely accepted as long as they cannot recharge, as the Charin standardization group says, “within a reasonable time”.
This last week has marked another important step, with the official inaugural demonstration (or simulation) at the OSLO EVS35, higher power material intended for this: the Megawatt Charging System (MCS).
CharIn is the standards-driven business group originally formed by German automakers to refine and drive adoption of the Combined Charging System (CCS).
First time seeing an MCS charging socket!
@ABBelec
Huge + and – terminals, ground, CP and PP pins and two extra… (for automation?🤔)
MCS standard up to 3.75 MW of power for trucks and buses. #EVS35 pic.twitter.com/7gYO20RKl7— Roberto di Gento (@robertvg) June 12, 2022
With batteries for long-range electric tractor-trailers expected to be in the hundreds of kilowatts, fast charging will potentially require much more than the 350kW power that is the top end of CCS’s passenger vehicle connector. today. Comme CharIn additionné, plus de courant nécessite plus de cuivre et des sections de conducteur plus grandes.
For this, MCS will use a single conductive outlet, with a maximum of 1,250 volts and 3,000 amps, and it will be “cyber-secure” and OSHA, FCC and UL certified. There will be a priority switch on the handle and the load ports will be almost up to the hips on the left side of the vehicle, offering the possibility of being automated in the future. It will offer bidirectional (V2X) charging capability.
Although, as we dare to point out, if EVs with a small camping trailer—or GMC Hummer EVs—are struggling to maneuver through the typical Electrify America charger, the idea of an MCS-equipped RV trying de se recharger est un obstacle de niveau supérieur .
Portland’s Electric Island site, developed by PGE and Daimler Trucks North America, is one of the first charging stations capable of offering the MCS connector. It’s ready for a range of heavy-duty electric trucks.
Megawatt truck charging stations present even more difficult siting challenges, as they must not only make room for the trucks, but also be at a point in the grid that can support the power consumption (10 MW or more) of a semiconductor factory.
These are among the difficult questions one group has grappled with in developing the plan for a “West Coast Clean Transit Corridor,” examining where these stations could be located and how to get started.
Another model for this could be a megawatt-level truck stop planned by startup WattEV in Bakersfield, California, targeting 40 charging stations and 25 MW.
WattEV Electric Truck Stop Rendering
The final standards have been anticipated for a long time. Charin reached a consensus on the design of entries and connectors in September 2020. From that moment – or earlier in the project – it was determined that the MCS would be retrocompatible with the CCS. Charin maintains that vehicles equipped with MCS should also “be able to recharge from the existing CCS infrastructure”, simply with a kind of catch adapter, we suppose.
Tesla has also been at least somewhat allied in this effort for its upcoming Semi, noting that it is looking to deploy megawatt charging infrastructure with other parties, which we believe would converge to this same standard.
The standard, which we will deepen soon, should help provide a more foreseeable charge behavior compared to what truck manufacturers have used in the meantime, providing several CCS ports.
MCS aims to allow trucks and buses to charge “within a reasonable time” and focuses on commercial vehicles of classes 6, 7 and 8. But as CharIn points out, this will not only help electric trucks, but also the heavy-duty marine, aerospace, mining and agricultural applications, as well as VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) vehicles and other aerial vessels.
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