After a few years of slow performance, megawatt charging of electric commercial trucks is progressing significantly.
WattEV this week announced the opening of one solar charging station for medium and heavy duty commercial trucks in Bakersfield, California. Announced in 2021, this is the fourth station that WattEV has opened, following three other locations in California located near major routes and trucking hubs.
WattEV said in a press release that the Bakersfield station has three 1,200-kw Megawatt Charging Standard (MCS) chargers connected to its solar array. These can reduce charging time for a 300-mile range to just 30 minutes, claims WattEV. The 119-acre site also has 16 360-kw dual-wire chargers connected to the grid, as well as 15 240-kw single-wire Combined Charging Standard (CCS) chargers.
The ChargePoint EV charger has a megawatt connector and cable
ChargePoint this week also announced support for MCS. According to a ChargePoint press release, compatible cables and connectors will be available on the company’s Power Link 2000 stations, which provide up to 1.2 megawatts of power. The company notes that the MCS is also designed for two-way charging, with up to 3 megawatts of power, as well as marine and aviation charging applications.
These announcements suggest that megawatt charging infrastructure development is finally accelerating. The first megawatt charging ready station for power sales opened in 2021, in Portland, Oregon, while megawatt charging is underway formalized as a standard in 2022.
Electric Island – Daimler Trucks North America and PGE – Portland OR
This may just be the beginning. A utility-based project to help site and position these high-power stations was launched in 2020, helping pave the way for a network along West Coast I-5 Corridor. Truck manufacturer Daimler is also planning to invest $650 million Charging and hydrogen networks for large rigs.
With refueling times for hydrogen fuel cell pickup trucks estimated at 20 minutes or more, megawatt charging creates closer competition between fuel cell and battery electric trucks in the efforts to decarbonize commercial vehicles — with it comes reason to wonder whether the time is now sells hydrogen fuel cells has come and gone.
