Electric vehicle charging is finally starting to catch up to the pace of daily life. Huawei just unveiled a new EV megawatt charging system that can add around 250 miles of range in just five minutes—fast enough to make waiting around for a charge feel like a thing of the past.
The 1.5 megawatt charger was announced at the China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum and is aimed at something most chargers don’t touch: heavy-duty electric trucks. These are the kind of vehicles that need to get back on the road quickly, and a 15-minute full charge could be a game-changer.
According to Huawei, the charger delivers up to 2,400 amps of current and pumps in energy at a rate of 20 kilowatt-hours per minute. That’s not just fast, it’s one of the fastest charging systems we’ve seen. It’s also a big step forward in the slow-moving world of EV megawatt charging.
Huawei’s charger isn’t alone in this space. BYD and Zeekr are also racing to bring high-output systems online. BYD’s latest charger clocks in at 1,000 kilowatts and can add over 200 miles of range in about five minutes. Zeekr is planning to launch a 1.2 megawatt charger later this year. The goal is the same across the board: get people (and freight) moving again, fast.
One interesting twist is that Huawei showed off a robotic charging arm earlier this year—one that automatically plugs into a car without any human involvement. In a demo, an autonomous car parked itself next to a charger, and the robotic arm did the rest.
While that demo used a smaller 600 kW charger, the company says the arm can be mounted on any size station, including this new model that is designed to charge EVs at the megawatt level.
Right now, most of these developments are rolling out in China, where electric vehicle infrastructure is expanding quickly. But even if you’re not behind the wheel of an electric semi, this kind of EV megawatt charging tech could trickle down to passenger cars soon enough.
Five-minute charging might not be the standard yet, but it’s starting to feel a lot more realistic.
