We at ZPN Energy make rapid chargers: both the street side 'Rapid' ones that you might be familiar with and mobile, vehicle mounted units for the growing Energy-on-Demand industry such as ZPN's market leading ZAPME and ZPN DROP systems. We are building and developing our existing high output, Ultra-Rapid units mainly for commercial applications, but we are constantly amused by the sight of individual ‘Ultra-Rapid’ chargers at the roadside when almost no consumer EVs can take that level of charging output.
Currently, most EVs have a charge rate of around 50Kw. Even those that may be capable of a higher capacity charge have input limited to the charger that it is attached to. The Porsche Taycan is a good example. Charge it on any charger and 50Kw is all that all you will get, charge it at a Porsche dealer and you might get about 240kw. Tesla’s will charge at higher rates, but they need an adapter for non-Super Charger applications.
We are, therefore, not sure why some Charge Point Operators (CPOs) are installing single, 150-300+kW chargers when they could use a system like ZPN Energy's, that would provide four and eight 50kw+ chargers respectively… which would increase utilisation opportunity dramatically! Our own research shows that people will drive away from a charger that is in-use to find another. If someone is charging at 50kw on a 300kw charger it is a complete waste of the available capacity.
Some may argue that this is future proofing, but we take theview that for EV's to flourish we need maximum capacity, not unicorns that by the time new vehicles arrive that can use them, technology may have moved on.
Therefore, the answer to the question for 99.9% of EV’s on the world market - 50kw is that the maximum they will take, so what is the point of anything bigger?
Story by ZPN ENERGY
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