CharIN Officially Launches The Megawatt Charging System (MCS)
The new connector can handle up to 3,000 A at up to 1,250 V to charge heavy-duty vehicles quickly.
CharIN has officially launched at the EVS35 in Oslo, Norway, the Megawatt Charging System (MCS) DC fast charging connector for heavy-duty vehicles. As was can see, it has a new triangular shape.
The MCS has been under development for about four years, since CharIN initiated the Task Force for Heavy Duty Charging for Commercial Vehicles, at the 1st CharIN North America Conference in 2018.
Now, after completing development and tests (including at NREL), a working prototype of the MCS has been demonstrated on an Alpitronic charger and a Scania electric truck, which was able to receive more than 1 MW of power.
According to CharIN's website, the MCS is designed for a maximum current of 3,000 A (3 kA) at up to 1,250 V (1.25 kV), which means a potential 3,750 kW (3.75 MW) of peak power. That's an order of magnitude more than the 350-500 kW of the CCS Combo connector, which was used as a base for the MCS development.
CharIN says that the MCS is "based on globally aligned requirements and a technical specification to develop the requirements for a worldwide standard", which means that there is a strong hope for global adoption of the MCS for trucks, buses (Class 6, 7 and 8 commercial vehicles in general and more than 1 MW charging rates) and potentially other industries, including marine, aerospace, mining, or agriculture.
The publication of the final MCS standard is expected in 2024, meanwhile, starting later this year, CharIN members will present their respective products implementing MCS.
The MCS is not only a new single conductive plug for megawatt charging but also "the common agreement on one and the same position of the MCS Connector on all trucks worldwide" - all MCS manufacturers will install the charging inlet on the left-front side to simplify the infrastructure layouts.
In Germany, CharIN members are already testing the MCS in the real world.
