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Chinese electric carmaker Xpeng has unveiled its new S5 fast charger, capable of delivering up to 800 kW of power and enabling vehicles to achieve over 300 km of range in just 5 minutes of charging. This next-generation supercharger, set to hit the market by the end of this quarter, offers a significant leap in charging speed compared to current offerings.
The announcement was made by Xpeng’s Chairman and CEO, He Xiaopeng, who shared that the S5 super-fast charger can output a maximum current of 800 A and a maximum voltage of 1,000 V, allowing for over 1 km of range per second of charging. In comparison, Huawei’s previous record-holding charger offered a maximum power of 600 kW. He also noted that the next-generation charger takes less than 13 seconds from plug-in to the start of charging.
Prior to this, Xpeng’s most powerful charger was the S4, launched on August 15, 2022, which the company claimed could deliver a range of 210 km in just 5 minutes of charging. According to previous announcements by Xpeng, the S4 supercharger has a maximum power 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 charging stations in operation, 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 their sales target for this year is 280,000 units.
According to the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance, China had 2.7 million public charging stations at 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 example, has 2,306 fast-charging stations in China, offering 10,532 chargers. They also 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 preparation for the launch of more battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) next year. As of now, 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 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 they would open their network to other electric vehicles, but this only applies to about 20% of their stations.
According to CNC
