Imagine charging your electric car almost as quickly as filling a petrol tank, and that’s exactly what Mercedes-Benz just showed off at the IAA Auto Show in Munich with its AMG GT XX concept.
In testing, the EV reached a peak charging speed of 1014 kW, which is over 1 megawatt, a world first for passenger cars. To simplify it, the car absorbed as much energy in one minute as a Toyota RAV4 plug-in hybrid can hold in its entire battery. More impressive is that the GT XX managed to sustain that mega speed charging for over two and a half minutes.
So, to pull this off, two breakthroughs made it possible:
1. A direct-cooled battery using special nonconductive oil to keep over 3,000 cells at the right temperature.
2. A liquid-cooled charging cable, which is originally designed for electric trucks, adapted for the car.
This was surely a prototype setup with experimental equipment, but Mercedes says this is not just a science experiment. The direct-cooled battery technology will soon be in the production AMG GT and the brand’s upcoming AMG.EA platform. On the charging side, Mercedes is already working on 600-kW chargers for North America, inspired by this project.
While it will take time for everyday drivers to see such speeds at public stations, this breakthrough chips away at one of the biggest complaints about EVs, that is long charging times. The future of “refueling” your EV in just a few minutes may not be too far away.