A lot of questions remain when it comes to electric vehicles (EVs). For Terawatt Infrastructure, an EV charging solutions provider, one of those questions is if the chargers on its sites will be on the Megawatt Charging System (MCS) — a charging connector being developed for commercial EVs.
“The question seems to reflect a general increase in MCS chatter within EV circles, as the technology gradually gets closer to adoption,” the company said on its blog.
This inquiry is an important one because the MCS will become more critical as companies add more EVs to their commercial fleets. These heavy-duty vehicles require faster charging if they’re going to last on long shipping trips. Meanwhile, 30 minutes is considered an ideal refueling time in the industry — it fits with most driver breaks as well as current diesel fueling windows, according to Terawatt.
Currently a truck can only recoup about 50 miles in that time frame. It would need to add on approximately 150 miles in a long-haul use case.
Keys to a successful MCS
Four factors will help determine if the MCS be able to effectively keep electric commercial vehicles running on long-haul trips, according to Terawatt—standards, chargers, vehicles and power.
Standards
The EV industry is currently divided between to charging standards, the North American Charging Standard (NACS) that Tesla uses and the Combined Charging System (CCS), which everyone else uses. As EV charging technology evolves, however, the industry will be best served with just one standardized charging method. That’s why CharIN, the organization leading the standardization process, is currently working off of the CCS to develop one MCS standard for heavy-duty EVs, buses, airplanes, and marine vessels.
CharIN says that manufacturers are currently in the prototyping phase, but “the challenge is to agree and to align this big community,” Chairman Claas Bracklo said. “There are sometimes different interests of parties and somebody has an advantage by slowing that down.”
Chargers
Demo projects and prototypes are under development, according to Terawatt. The general expectation is chargers that start at 700 kW will be commercially available within the next one to two years. Meanwhile, 1 megawatt chargers should be released around 2027.
Electric vehicles
A fast electric vehicle charging infrastructure and tech is great, but not enough to bring MCS into the mainstream, Terawatt says. EVs have to have batteries that can handle faster charging speeds. Right now most heavy-duty EVs can handle between 120 to 250 kW. The Tesla Semi is the only one that could take on a 750-kW charger.
Developing vehicles that can handle that type of power is not an impossible feat, however. Terawatt noted that ABB E-mobility and MAN Truck & Bus recently teamed up to successfully use MCS to charge an EV truck, achieving more than 700 kW and 1,000 A of power and charging the truck from 10 percent to 80 percent in 30 minutes.
Power
Finally, power constraints will have to be eased in order for fast EV charging infrastructure development to take place at scale. MCS’ introduction is an example of how much power will be needed for the shift to EVs to scale. The average total annual EV load in the U.S. could increase by 1850 percent between 2023 and 2040, according to PwC. That’s how much electricity is generated in Texas every year.
Terawatt is currently building all of its charging sites in a way that will facilitate a transition to MCS as soon as it becomes available — and as soon as there are commercial EVs that can handle that higher level of charge.
“We look forward to working with charger and vehicle OEMs to get the latest technology up and running as quickly as possible,” the company said.
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