Whenever the topic of future pure electric commercial vehicles comes up, there is always a term that cannot be avoided, and that is "megawatt charging". Megawatt Charging means that the charging power of the vehicle can reach the megawatt level. Its full name is Megawatt Charging System, abbreviated as MCS. Future pure electric trucks such as the Mercedes-Benz eActros LongHaul, MAN eTruck, and even the Tesla Semi are all equipped with this system.
What is the MCS Megawatt Charging System?
Firstly, the MCS megawatt charging system is a unified industry standard. It's not that any charging system with a charging power reaching the megawatt level can be called an MCS megawatt charging system. The design of the MCS megawatt charging system is promoted by the CharIN Alliance, which is composed of automobile companies such as Daimler, Volkswagen, Porsche, and industry associations such as TUV. The commonly seen CCS combined charging system in Europe was designed by this alliance. In 2018, the alliance formulated a new plan named HPCCV, aiming to establish a brand-new standard to empower the charging of future commercial vehicles.
Five companies including Tesla and ABB submitted the design of a new generation of charging systems to the alliance.
Finally, the alliance determined the preliminary design in May 2019. During the subsequent design process, this design gradually evolved and developed, and gradually became the current MCS megawatt charging system.
Why is the MCS Megawatt Charging System needed?
The MCS megawatt charging system is mainly formulated for the commercial vehicle industry, and it is closely related to the particularity of the commercial vehicle industry itself.
Firstly, commercial vehicles are heavy and often need to travel long distances. In order to ensure the cruising range, the vehicle must be equipped with a larger battery, which brings extremely high weight to the vehicle body. This reduces the loading weight of commercial vehicles and affects the profit. Under the current technical conditions, if you want to reduce the weight of the battery, you have to reduce the battery capacity, and the lost cruising range has to be compensated by more frequent charging. The MCS megawatt charging system can shorten the charging time and avoid affecting the vehicle transportation.
In addition, the randomness of commercial vehicle charging is relatively high. The charging location depends on the transportation route, and the charging time depends on the driver's rest time. The charging itself should not affect the transportation route. Therefore, faster and more convenient charging has become the preferred choice for commercial vehicles, and the MCS megawatt charging system can just meet this demand.
What does the MCS Megawatt Charging System look like?
The charging stations of the MCS megawatt charging system look similar to the common charging stations, but the charging sockets have been updated.
Currently, the charging socket of the MCS megawatt charging system has been iterated to version V3.2. Its shell is basically in the shape of an inverted triangle, and it contains 7 pins inside. These 7 pins are divided into three groups:
Red group: The 2 largest pins are located at the top of the plug. They are the main DC power supply pins, which charge the vehicle's power battery.
White group: The 4 small pins in the center are divided into 3 groups. They are communication/detection pins, responsible for operations such as control connection confirmation and charging connection confirmation.
Green group: 1 large pin is located at the bottom of the plug, which is the vehicle body grounding pin.
According to the document requirements of the CharIN Alliance, the vehicle body interface of the MCS megawatt charging system should, in principle, be installed on the left side of the vehicle (i.e., the driver's side), and the design of the charging station will be based on this requirement.
In addition, the MCS megawatt charging system will also integrate systems such as the Internet of Vehicles system and low-voltage power supply. Since the charging power of the MCS megawatt charging system is extremely high, the cross-sectional area of the cable has been thickened. In addition, the cable will be equipped with a more powerful water cooling system, which will increase the weight of the cable. It will be quite laborious for the driver to charge each time. The technical documents of CharIN also take this into account. They mentioned that the future MCS megawatt charging system can integrate an automatic docking system, and a robot can be used to insert and remove the charging gun.
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Megawatt Charging System (MCS) EV Charging Cable
Megawatt Charging System (MCS) EV Charging Inlet Port
What is the maximum power of the MCS Megawatt Charging System?
According to the design documents, we can see that the maximum voltage of the MCS megawatt charging system can reach 1250V, and the maximum current can reach 3000A. Calculating it, the power is 3.75 megawatts. However, currently, the megawatt charging system can only reach 1 megawatt. The "complete version" of 3.75 megawatts requires stronger infrastructure, better cable cooling, etc., with higher requirements.
According to EU law, truck drivers must rest for 45 minutes after every 6 hours of driving. During this 45-minute rest period, the truck must charge as much electricity as possible to meet the driving needs for the next six hours.
The addition of the megawatt charging system can enable the truck to replenish a cruising range of more than 400 kilometers within 45 minutes, thus reducing the downtime for charging.
The Promotion Process of the MCS Megawatt Charging System Up to now, demonstration charging stations of the MCS charging system have been established in the United States, Germany, and other places. They basically adopt the design of separating the transformer and power devices, with a typical capacity of 3.75 megavolt-amperes, which is comparable to that of a power plant. Daimler Trucks, TRATON, and Volvo Trucks jointly established a new joint venture company in 2021 and invested 5 billion euros in building a charging network.
In addition, the governments of Germany, Sweden, and other countries have also strongly supported the construction of the charging network. However, due to the high price of the equipment required for the charging station and the extremely high requirements for the power transmission network, more impetus is still needed for the promotion of the MCS megawatt charging system.
Not only will the commercial vehicle industry use the MCS megawatt charging system, but this system can also be extended to the maritime and aviation fields to drive electric aircraft and electric ships. The German company Lilium GmbH has launched an electric aircraft called Lilium Jets, which is equipped with a 900-kilowatt-hour battery pack and used in conjunction with the MCS megawatt charging system.
Currently, the MCS megawatt charging system is still developing and improving rapidly. The pure electric long-haul heavy trucks of various European truck companies are basically equipped with the MCS megawatt charging system, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a major development trend in the future.
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