ChargePoint Built a 600-KW Fast-Charging Beast—Now EVs Need to Catch Up
Laying the groundwork for EVs that could charge with 50 percent more power than today’s best models.
Ideally, EV charging technology and infrastructure would always be one step ahead of electric cars. Of course, that’s not the reality we live in. The first 15 years of the EV era often required early adopters to meticulously plan out charging stops, occasionally wait in long lines, and frequently deal with stations that couldn’t make use of a vehicle’s full capabilities.
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But there’s reason to believe we’re moving past that phase to one where public charging keeps pace with, or even runs ahead of, EV tech. Here’s just one promising data point: The new ChargePoint Express Solo can deliver up to 600 kilowatts to a single vehicle. The Lucid Gravity, which can suck down more power than any EV in America today, maxes out at 400 kilowatts. ChargePoint expects EVs with 600-kW charging capability will reach U.S. roads around 2030, which means there’s a chance the infrastructure will gain real scale before the vehicles arrive.
Until then, the dual-cable Express Solo can split its 600 kW between multiple vehicles. ChargePoint demonstrated its capabilities to media with a video of one unit charging a Chevrolet Silverado EV and a Lucid Gravity, with both vehicles pulling around 298 kilowatts simultaneously. ChargePoint will also sell versions of the Solo that max out at 200 and 400 kilowatts.
While many DC fast-chargers stash the power electronics in a dedicated cabinet separate from the dispenser, the Solo is a standalone charger, which means it bundles both parts into one box with a relatively compact 31-by-39-inch footprint. That should make it particularly attractive to gas stations and convenience stores in urban areas where space is at a premium. At launch, the Express Solo can also be paired with ChargePoint’s PL2000, a two-cord dispenser that doesn’t have its own power electronics. That setup can split the Express Solo’s 600 kW among four vehicles, and the company is working on an upgrade that will allow the DC fast-charger to share power with three dispensers so up to eight vehicles can charge at once.
The Express Solo is the first product built on ChargePoint’s new Express Architecture, which has been developed similar to how automakers engineer vehicles. The platform will allow the company to create a range of products using shared power, thermal, and control components and common software to maximize economies of scale.
ChargePoint says the architecture supports chargers good for up to 1.8 megawatts of power, although that much power will likely only be relevant for commercial trucks for the foreseeable future. It’s also designed to work with battery storage and integrated solar, connecting to those energy sources via DC connections that minimize electrical losses. Bidirectional charging support will allow commercial charging depots to reduce their energy costs via peak shaving and other utility incentives.
ChargePoint operates more EV charging stations in North America than any other company, with approximately 45,000 locations, although the vast majority of those are limited to slower Level 2 charging. The company hopes that the Express architecture will help improve the shaky economics of Level 3 DC public charging, where it’s extremely hard to turn a profit. It’s aiming for chargers built on this platform to be 30 percent cheaper to purchase and install and 30 percent cheaper to operate with a 30 percent smaller footprint than current fast-chargers.
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I fell in love with car magazines during sixth-grade silent reading time and soon realized that the editors were being paid to drive a never-ending parade of new cars and write stories about their experiences. Could any job be better? The answer was obvious to 11-year-old me. By the time I reached high school, becoming an automotive journalist wasn’t just a distant dream, it was a goal. I joined the school newspaper and weaseled my way into media days at the Detroit auto show. With a new driver’s license in my wallet, I cold-called MotorTrend’s Detroit editor, who graciously agreed to an informational interview and then gave me the advice that set me on the path to where I am today. Get an engineering degree and learn to write, he said, and everything else would fall into place. I left nothing to chance and majored in both mechanical engineering and journalism at Michigan State, where a J-school prof warned I’d become a “one-note writer” if I kept turning in stories about cars for every assignment. That sounded just fine by me, so I talked my way into GM’s Lansing Grand River Assembly plant for my next story. My child-like obsession with cars started to pay off soon after. In 2007, I won an essay contest to fly to the Frankfurt auto show and drive the Saturn Astra with some of the same writers I had been reading since sixth grade. Winning that contest launched my career. I wrote for Jalopnik and Edmunds, interned at Automobile, finished school, and turned down an engineering job with Honda for full-time employment with Automobile. In the years since, I’ve written for Car and Driver, The New York Times, and now, coming full circle, MotorTrend. It has been a dream. A big chunk of this job is exactly what it looks like: playing with cars. I’m happiest when the work involves affordable sporty hatchbacks, expensive sports cars, manual transmissions, or any technology that requires I learn something to understand how it works, but I’m not picky. If it moves under its own power, I’ll drive it.
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