Charge an electric truck in 30 minutes: Kempower rolls out 1.2 MW charging station

Finnish company Kempower has announced it is now taking orders for its new 1.2 MW electric truck charging station. The company says the system comes with a peak power of 1500A, 1.2 MW and a “Mega Satellite” ensuring maximum compatibility in the form of either high-power CCS plug or MCS plug

To get a sense of the scale of how powerful the new Kempower charger is, Vovlo’s FH electric prime mover, the first of which sold in Australia in March, has a 540kWh battery pack.

Running at full capacity a 1.2 MW charger would take around 30 mins to get a majority charge of a pack that size (charging rate would slow somewhat as the battery approaches capacity).

“Trucks and large vehicles are currently responsible for around 25% of the CO2 emissions generated by road transport in the EU,” says Kempower CEO Tomi Ristimäki.

“This is a challenge that all players in our ecosystem, public and private, must face together, joining efforts and developing solutions to co-create a cleaner and quieter world. In this sense, we believe that our Megawatt Charging System provides a part of the answer to the EU’s decarbonization goals,”

Kempower says according to various European logistics and mobility experts and operators, by 2040, 85% of new trucks sold in Europe, the US, and China will be zero-emission, mostly electric, and these will benefit the environment and for the quality of life of drivers, by eliminating noise and vibration from their daily working lives.

Kempower is showcasing the new megawatt charging system at the Nordic EV Summit in Oslo, Norway, 4-5 April 2024.

Convergence of multiple technologies sees electric trucking developing at blistering pace

The announcement of Kempower’s megawatt charging station is just the latest in a series of recent technology breakthroughs that are rapidly changing the economics of electric heavy vehicles.

Earlier this week the world’s largest battery maker CATL announced its new heavy vehicle battery intended for buses trucks will have a staggering 1.5 million km. For reference the average Australian passenger car drives less than 15,000 km per year so a 1.5 million km battery would last about 100 years worth of average driving.

Last year CATL also announced it would begin mass production of a new “condensed” battery with 500 Wh/kg, almost double the energy density of the batteries currently used in Tesla vehicles.

The higher energy density batteries and longer lifecycles are the perfect solution for heavy vehicles such as buses and trucks which do a lot of kilometres and need to carry heavy payloads.

On top of the improved energy density and lifespan, CATL has also significantly reduced production costs over the past 12 months. In January the CATL announced it would reduce the cost per kWh of its lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells by a stunning 50 per cent by mid 2024.

Multiple technology breakthroughs in battery longevity, cost reduction, energy density and now fast charging are now converging to make electric trucking far superior to diesel trucks on a cost per km basis.