CharIN’s Megawatt Charging System (MCS) Rapid Charging Connector for Heavy-duty Vehicles

CharIN officially launched the Megawatt Charging System (MCS) direct current rapid charging connector for heavy-duty vehicles a few months ago, and provided some references. The MW-level charging interface has entered the process of accelerated implementation, parallel to the battery swapping method in China, and Europe and the United States are insisting on the rapid charging route.

From the perspective of Europe and the United States:

• Heavy-duty vehicles are configured with different ranges according to different gradients.

• Build fast charging systems around power distribution and energy storage networks.

• Develop similar support structures for heavy-duty trucks and passenger cars.

The core issue is to unify a system across different countries, which is difficult to achieve, and trying locally is not feasible. Therefore, it is necessary to unify the infrastructure and charging interfaces to provide heavy-duty vehicles with certain diversity.

From the perspective of China:

• Design proprietary systems.

• Need complete infrastructure support for flexible deployment.

• Standardization is crucial, involving the entire battery swapping base and battery, and requires strong collaborative effects.

As long as someone runs it successfully, it can become a factual standard, so starting from battery-swapping heavy-duty trucks, the focus is on improving different applications and scenarios. It’s a bit like considering experimental zones.

Deployment of MCS

Before looking at the technical route of MCS, let’s first look at how a heavy-duty truck with a fully charged battery can become a miniature power plant. To supply four heavy-duty trucks with charging, a typical capacity of 3.75MVA is required.

Physically, since heavy-duty vehicles are relatively long, the physical distance of battery placement during replacement will be considered. From the perspective of charging, separating the transformer and power devices and then the entire system is more reasonable from the perspective of physical distance and layout.

If we consider the design of battery swapping for heavy-duty trucks, it involves the need for battery groups to be close to each other, and multiple batteries will be close together in physical space.

Design of MCS ConnectorThe specific requirements of the MCS connector provided by CharIN are:

• Single conductor plug

• Maximum voltage of 1,250V

• Maximum current of 3000A

• PLC + ISO/IEC 15118

• Touch safe (UL2251)

• Software interpretation covering switch on charging connector handle

• Compliant with OSHA and ADA (and local equivalent) standards

• FCC Class A EMI (and local equivalent)

• Located on the left side of the vehicle, roughly at hip height

• Capable of automation (supporting charging robot)

• UL (NRTL) certified

• Network security

• V2X (bidirectional)

The maximum current of MCS design is 3,000A (3kA), and the highest voltage is 1,250V (1.25 kV). The overall design specification is defined as 3,750kW (3.75MW) peak power. This is almost 10 times higher than the 350-500kW of the CCS Combo (Type1 and Type2) connector.

Currently, the working prototype of the MCS connector has been demonstrated on the Alpitronic charging system and Scania electric truck, and it can receive over 1MW of power (with the support of bidirectional liquid cooling inside the charging station and electric vehicle, it can reach over 3MW+). According to the CharIN website:

In the design, MCS was intended from the beginning to “be based on global uniform requirements and set technical specifications for global standard requirements”. This means that the entire standard is designed for MCS to be used globally for trucks, buses (6th, 7th, and 8th grade general commercial vehicles), and charging rates of over 1 megawatt, as well as potential other industries including marine, aerospace, mining, or agriculture.

My understanding is that this may evolve into a common charging solution for batteries larger than 200kWh, and the final MCS standard is expected to be released in 2024. This solution may continue to compete with Tesla’s two options.

Summary: We are focusing on the development of this field globally. Of course, since heavy trucks and other vehicles require a large amount of batteries, LFP batteries are a good choice. I estimate that the next step will bring significant demand for batteries in our country.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.