Ultra-fast EV charging on the way

Chargemaster expects an ultra-fast DC charger involving two European EV charging manufacturers it has partnered with will be available in New Zealand in about a year.

The Portugal-based electric mobility company Efacec is building the chargers with a power output of up to 350kW, aimed at the new generation of long-range EVs, Chargemaster chief executive officer Nigel Broomhall says.

Other high-powered 350kW chargers are being tested in Europe, with the first of a planned 400 delivered by Australian firm Tritium already deployed in Brohltal-Ost, in the German state of Rhineland Palatinate.

Broomhall expects the Efacec chargers to be suitable mainly for service stations here where EV drivers can grab a coffee and food while waiting up to about 15 minutes for a full charge.

One reason is that the chargers could be expensive to install. “There’s no pricing yet but I’d expect it to be in six figures,” Broomhall says.

He recently visited Efacec’s headquarters in Porto City, Portugal, and says the Combined Charging System (CCS) standard chargers are suitable only for new EVs, such as the Porsche Mission E, although any car with a CCS port can use them.

“The charger will talk to the car to ascertain how much energy it can accept, which will be managed by the on-board software,” Broomhall says.

He says the chargers are designed to have a long life.

A four-way consortium between the VW Group, Daimler, BMW Group and Ford called Ionity plans to install a network of 350kW chargers across Europe, the chargers expected to power a VW e-Golf up to 80% in four minutes.

Broomhall says Chargemaster is discussing the situation with various car brands in New Zealand.

Overseas reports say Efacec has opened a new factory in Maia in the north of Portugal to increase capacity to 3800 fast-charging stations annually, possibly expanding to 9000 a year.