This upcoming EV charging station of Zeekr’s has 10 ports that EACH are capable of delivering 1.2 MW of power.
Aside from the EV product and price war currently raging, the Chinese automakers are now also apparently competing against each other on their chargers too. And the latest salvo has come from Zeekr, which recently teased a fully liquid-cooled charging station that boasts a peak power output of 1.2 MW.
Just to dispel any confusion right at the start as well, Zeekr’s supercharging station will actually have 10 plugs, and EACH plug is apparently capable of delivering 1.2 MW of power!
The new superfast charger of Zeekr’s was recently teased at the China EV100 Forum, and comes a little while after it has unveiled its Golden Battery, which touts to be capable of being topped up at 500 kW to achieve a 10-80% state of charge in just 15 minutes.
Zeekr has announced that an official unveiling of this superfast charging station will take place on the 23rd of April at the Shanghai Auto Show, while its production rollout will commence a few months after.
In the past three years, Zeekr has progressively upgraded its charging stations from 360 kW to 600 kW and then to 800 kW. The automaker currently operates 826 charging stations with 4,007 chargers across China.
“We will lead the charging industry into the ultra-fast 1 MW charging era,” stated Zeekr’s representative Zhao. The company has ambitious plans to expand to 10,000 chargers by 2026 throughout China.
Zeekr incidentally isn’t alone in pushing into fast charging beyond 1 MW. Earlier this month, BYD fired the first shot in this charging arms race by unveiling its 1 MW fast charger capable of adding 2 km per second or 400 km in just 5 minutes.
BYD has further previously announced plans to install 4,000 units of 1 MW fast chargers, with the first 500 set to be deployed this month. This aggressive rollout will make the BYD Megawatt Flash Charger (its official name by the way) the most powerful mass-produced passenger car charger on the market, at least for a little while anyway.
Now the rise of ultra-fast chargers could be the final nail in the coffin for internal combustion engines, as long recharge times have perennially been one of the biggest barriers to mainstream EV adoption. That said, the sheer power demands of these chargers raise concerns about whether the electrical grid can support widespread deployment, especially if they start appearing as rapidly as these automakers are hyping it up to be.
Additionally, with existing high-powered DC chargers already costing as much as refuelling a petrol car in many markets, one has to also perhaps ask the rather reasonable question of how much will these ultra-fast charging sessions cost?
