Range anxiety is one of the most important problems that manufacturers of electric vehicles must face, and as if that weren't enough, no one wants to wait too long to charge a battery and continue on the road. Even with access to official superchargers, a Tesla Model S needs 30 minutes to recover just over 250 kilometers… but what if it were possible to get 200 in 8 minutes? That is the promise of the Swiss company ABB with its new Terra High Power charger. The only thing missing is a car that can support it…
Imagine you're traveling in your electric car, and the integrated system warns that the battery is a bit low. You make a stop, plug in the charger, take less than ten minutes to buy a coffee and go to the bathroom, and when you return, your car has recovered 200 kilometers of range. That doesn't sound bad... but in real life, the effective wait is about 30 minutes, provided you're using a 120-kilowatt Tesla Supercharger. In the case of CHAdeMO chargers, the limit is 62.5 kilowatts. 200 kilometers in eight minutes equals a 350-kilowatt charger, a number that until recently seemed very difficult to reach, but the Swiss company ABB has something special in mind.
The official name for its charger is Terra High Power, and from what we can appreciate in the images, it is compatible with the CHAdeMO and CCS Combo standards, since ABB's intention is to maintain a neutral position. Up to this point, nothing seems to indicate that the Terra High Power is capable of delivering those 350 kilowatts to a single vehicle (at least safely), but the availability of two connectors will enable charging two cars at the same time, a great advantage as the number of electric units in the streets keeps growing.
Now, why can't we just inject 350 kW directly? In very relaxed terms, that would completely destroy the battery pack. Many models limit charging to 50 kW to preserve battery integrity and extend its useful life. The 2018 edition of the Nissan Leaf raised that limit to 100 kW, and rumors floating around the Tesla Model 3 place it at 210 kW; however, it is leaving the factory with a cap of 100 kW. Chargers like ABB's Terra High Power will probably demand a serious review of available standards, but we're glad to know that the technology already exists.
