An ultra-fast, 450kW electric car charger has recorded unprecedented charging times with an unnamed Porsche electric car prototype, in testing alongside BMW.
Unveiled by a consortium of companies that includes automakers BMW and Porsche as well as German tech company Siemens, the system is now available for the public to use free of charge, to give EVs a quick hit of 100km extra range in as little as 3 minutes.
The consortium hopes that the ultra-fast charging technology will resolve what has been a major barrier for many considering to “go electric” – a lack of speedy and convenient EV charging.
The FastCharge system, backed by a €7.8million ($A12.27million) grant from the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure and using an energy supply system from Siemens, claims to be more than three times as fast as a Tesla supercharger, and tops the speed of Australian-made Tritium Veefil-PK HPC 350kW chargers.
While it is still in testing phase, the actual speed of charging of the system depends on the voltage of any particular vehicle.
However, BMW says that the system can handle up to 920v (which it and Porsche anticipate will be a future benchmark for electric vehicles), automatically adapting to the individual vehicle charging capacities.
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