Fast charging network

The question of whether you will reach your destination or the intermediate point with a full charge of the drive battery has led to range anxiety.

In addition to having particularly large batteries - the Tesla Model S from 2012 reached over 600 km - people began to set up fast charging points on long-distance routes.

The microcars (quadricycles) supported by this did not have large batteries, so that 3-phase power outlets (32 A at 400 volts) shortened the charging stops sufficiently to enable longer day trips.

On top of that, the state-installed public charging points were not usually located on along long travel routes, but rather at train stations preferred for commuters.

In 2007, ChargePoint was founded in California, which not only manufactured wall boxes for private households, but also offered to operate them as public charging stations.

Additionally they were able to find retailers to provide a place, so that there were charging stations with ChargePoint Home with 16 A and 32 A for 220 V widely available.

[2] In Japan, a pilot project for electric vehicles was started in 2006, with the participation of Nissan, Mitsubishi and today's Subaru, in which faster public charging points were tested.

When the Nissan Leaf came around in 2010, having a range of up to 160 km (100 miles), the concept of an actual fast charging networks was developed.

Since most vehicles could use the full number of amps, the method of metering by the minutes of charging became the widespread basis for billing.

In technical terms, the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) approach to performance billing became widespread.

At the IAA 2015 in September, Porsche showed a demonstrator "Mission E", which had twice the on-board voltage of 800 V and it was able to charge at that doubled level.

It started in October 2016, funded by the EU, with the intention to build 25 fast-charging stations with CCS plugs and 350 kW at intervals of 150 to 200 km in the corridor from Amsterdam/Belgium via Frankfurt/Stuttgart/Munich to Vienna/Graz until the end of 2019.

In October 2017 the operator Ionity was founded, with most of the companies that were involved in "Ultra-E", to set up the HPC charging network.

[27] The development along motorways has been ongoing steadily, and by 2020 half of the existing fast charging locations in Germany were equipped with HPC stations.

[29](video) This funding was extended at the end of 2022 adding another 6 billion Euro for the time frame up to 2030 expecting the number of public charging stations to get to 1 million.

[34] A similar approach was used in France where the regional governments put in public-private partnership agreements to build infrastructure including charging stations (PIA - Programme d'Investissements d'Avenir).

[40] A first NEVI site was commissioned in Ohio in December 2023, with the requirements met by a single EVgo charging station with four connection cables.

[45] Due to the fulfillment of just the minimum requirements, many stations are located at mall shopping centers in the wider area of a highway, and the availability for actual charging is assessed poorly.

[46] In this setting, Tesla Superchargers achieved a dominant market position in the US after allowing charging for third-party brands from 2020 on.

In Spain the development of public fast chargers is mainly driven by the utility companies which also build charging stations for private owners.

[48] Along the motorways it is mostly Iberdrola being active, which received 1 billion Euro through an agreement with BP in 2023 in order to build 11,000 fast chargers, mostly HPC stations.

[52] With the Taycan from 2019, Porsche was the first manufacturer to be able to use the doubled charging speed of the HPC chargers with an on-board architecture of 800 volts - actually it maxed out at 270 kW.

However, it turned out that you can also use the doubled charging speed with the already common on-board architecture in 400 volts - if you have the battery pack in two parts and connect them in series.

The first electric trucks also used 400 volt battery packs that can be connected in series, as the Mercedes Benz eActross 400 (2022) was able to show.

Based on that, there are some start-ups that use the maximum of 1000 volts of the HPC chargers for their vehicles, including Tesla Semi (2022), at the expense of slightly lowering the durability.

Geely developed the Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA), which was expanded to include an 800 Volt variant, also licensing it to other vehicle manufacturers.

In China, the development of fast chargers was recognized while the five-year plan 2015–2020 was still running, so they started a cooperation with Chademo in 2018 to specify charging options beyond 500 kW.

[54] The new standard for China and Japan was finally resolved in April 2020 thereby creating a new plug type named ChaoJi.

[57] Since January 2024, CATL has been supplying 4 C batteries to Chinese vehicle manufacturers, which allow even higher charging currents.

[59] [49] Accordingly, Zeekr Power is beginning to build a fast-charging network in China with charging stations with a maximum of 800 A and a continuous output of up to 600 kW.