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Chinese electric carmaker X-peng has unveiled its new S5 fast charger, capable of delivering up to 800 kW of power and offering a range of over 300 km after just a 5-minute charge. This next-generation supercharger, set to hit the market by the end of this quarter, promises a significant leap in charging speed compared to current offerings.
The announcement was made by X-peng’s Chairman and CEO, He Xiaopeng, who revealed that the S5 fast charger can output a maximum current of 800 A and a maximum voltage of 1,000 V, enabling over 1 km of range per second of charging. For context, Huawei’s previous record-holding charger topped out at 600 kW. He also noted that the next-gen charger takes less than 13 seconds to initiate charging once a vehicle is plugged in.
Prior to this, Xpeng’s most powerful charger was the S4, launched on August 15, 2022, which the company claimed could provide a 210 km range in just 5 minutes of charging. According to earlier disclosures by Xpeng, the S4 supercharger had a maximum power output of 480 kW, a maximum current of 670 A, and a peak charging power of 400 kW.
As of the end of July, Xpeng had 1,300 operational charging stations, including 1,000 fast-charging stations across China. The company is targeting 10,000 self-operated charging stations by 2026, including 4,500 liquid-cooled supercharging stations. In 2023, Xpeng sold a total of 141,601 electric vehicles, and for this year, the company has set a sales target of 280,000 units.
According to the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance, China had 2.7 million public charging stations by the end of 2023. This number is expected to increase by 40% in 2024, but only a fraction will support fast charging.
Other Chinese automakers are also developing their charging networks. Nio, for instance, has 2,306 fast-charging stations in China, offering 10,532 chargers. Additionally, they have 1,619 regular charging stations with 12,385 chargers and 2,458 battery swap stations. Li Auto is also actively building its charging infrastructure in anticipation of launching more battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) next year. Currently, Li Auto has 701 charging stations and aims to have over 2,000 by the end of this year and more than 5,000 by the end of 2025.
Globally, Tesla has been a pioneer in developing fast-charging networks. The company began installing fast-charging stations in China back in 2014 and had over 11,000 chargers as of November 2023. However, most of these stations are only compatible with Tesla vehicles. In 2023, Tesla announced that it would open up its network to other electric vehicles, but this only applies to around 20% of its stations.
According to CNC
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