MERCEDES-BENZ

Mercedes e-Actros 600 receives 1,001.1 kW at 22% state of charge

Mercedes-Benz trucks, the German automaker's heavy-duty division, has successfully completed its first 1,000 kW (1 mW) fast charging test with the newly defined Megawatt Charging System (MCS) standard, InsideEVs reported.

The new system was being tested on the eActros 600(image above) truck prototype, presented to the public in 2023, which goes into production for the European market later this year.

Mercedes-Benz “mega-charging” system

The vehicle received 1,001.1 kW at 22% of the state of charge (SOC);

1,242 amps at 806 volts were supplied by the charger to reach the kilowatt level;

The Mercedes-Benz e-Actros 600 semi-truck has a 621 kWh battery and up to 500 km of range;

Initially, the vehicle will have a CCS2 charging input (the same used in conventional EVs) with a capacity of 400 kW;

According to Mercedes-Benz, 1 mW MCS charging will be available later;

The automaker informed that “customers can request pre-installation for this. MCS technology must be adaptable to these models.”

Although MCS has already been defined as a new standard, manufacturers continue to improve its physical implementation for large-scale production.

Going forward, the work of Mercedes-Benz Trucks development engineers involves further testing of the communication interface between the vehicle and charging station, defined as part of the MCS standardization, and the continued development of prototype components towards maturity in series.

Mercedes-Benz, in a statement: For the test carried out on the e-Actros, the DC fast charging solution was provided by Siemens, which is also improving its products to obtain more and more customer orders.

Race for ultra-fast charging in electric vehicles...With each passing day, manufacturers of EVs, batteries for these vehicles and others, try to improve the technology used in electric models.

A new ultra-fast charging system, similar to smartphones, was recently announced, which promises to charge 80% of the EV in just ten minutes. This is the case of Polestar, which achieved the feat with the Polestar 5 prototype.

Another technology aimed at electric vehicles that we brought here was the lithium-free sodium ion battery, which promises to be better than those with lithium in several aspects and can equip EV charging stations, for example. Learn more about the technology here.

Finally, we published about the solid-state battery that is being developed by Factorial Energy, which has the support of three automakers. Among them, Mercedes-Benz itself. The company's technology also focuses on extending the useful life of batteries and reducing their charging time.

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