offer rates of 1 km per second

How much power is enough? How much time are you willing to sacrifice stopping to charge your EV to make the leap to this technology? Xpeng claims to have the answer: 800 kW.

Is this a lot or a little?

This is one kilometer per second.

They looked dead. A few years ago, the car market came to a standstill when the Geneva or Paris Motor Show took place. Media, both specialist and general, focused on the event, which brought together brands from around the world for all types of audiences.

Today, car shows have lost their importance as brands have changed their communication strategy. As is the case with video games, manufacturers have begun to shy away from these types of events where they have to communicate with all the competitors to make their announcement stand out from the rest.

This has led to traditional auto shows being taken over by Chinese firms hungry for attention and space in the media. At the last Geneva race, Renault went up against Chinese manufacturers. And if this happens in Europe, what won’t happen in Asia?

Beijing Hall. If you’re keeping an eye on Japanese manufacturers when the Tokyo Auto Show arrives, you’d expect the Beijing Auto Show to feature some of the most exciting adverts from Chinese manufacturers. And the latest edition was not new. Felix Cerezo’s Chronicle World This explains well what they must have experienced there.

Xiaomi, of course, was a great incentive. But at the Asian show we also saw the Omoda 5, the car with which Chery wants to open a gap in Europe and take on MG, and the Omoda 7. BYD was also seen confirming Seagull’s arrival in Europe (albeit lowering the price). expectations) or impressive prototypes and concepts. And even brands such as Mini and Mercedes timed their latest presentations to coincide with the Chinese event.

XPeng stands out for its load. Among all this wave of launches, announcements and promises, XPeng managed to come out on top. And it did this by, among other things, promising an electric vehicle charger, which sounds like science fiction. No more and no less than 800 kW peak power.

According to their calculations, if you spent five minutes reading this article, you will have enough energy to drive another 300 kilometers. Your accounts are talking about replenishment one kilometer every second connected to the network. And they claim that these recharges will be available in their fast chargers at third quarter of the same 2024as they will update their outlets.

If this is true, then Xpeng will have the fastest charging in the world. Until now, LiAuto has surprised with peak power charging of more than 500 kW, which promises to fill most of the battery of its minivans in just 15 minutes. XPeng claims it can (much) improve this record with Platform 800 A 1000 V.

Where are we? The quick and simple answer is: very far. Until now, the cars that charge the fastest in Europe do not reach 300 kW. Hyundai and Kia offer up to 240 kW charging for their latest electric vehicles. Porsche and Audi say they can deliver up to 270kW of power in their Taycan and e-tron GT. They all have 800V platforms.

These platforms are starting to play an important role at the top of the EV market. These are platforms that support power in excess of 200 kW and, especially with larger batteries, are starting to be seen as an important and valuable purchase.

More spectacular than useful. At least for now. Because the truth is that work is underway in Europe to extend the charging network to our roads, which will fill the continent’s main roads with 350 kW sockets… in 2030. , suggest XPeng. Moreover, in Spain we have been dragging this out for many years.

At the moment it seems that we are far from seeing similar solutions in Europe. We currently don’t have charging infrastructure ready to offer this power, and if it becomes available, only the most advanced electric trucks or a few vehicles will be able to benefit from it. However, it remains to be seen how batteries charged with such power will age.

Image | Speng

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