Maine has two EA stations and I went to one today, at the Walmart Super center in Scarborough. A Mach E was just pulling out of one of the 350 kW units as I pulled in so no problem with availability. Once plugged in and beginning the charge, I watched the charge rate rapidly rise to over 200 kW. I was starting with 19 percent in the battery and the EA unit indicated that a charge to 80 would take 16 minutes. This proved to be accurate and the maximum charge rate hit 230 kW before throttling down to about 190 at 60 percent and 160 at 70 percent. A Taycan owner pulled in later and reported that he hit 236 kW, so the EV6 is right up there in terms of very fast charge rate.
If most of the EVs stay with 400V systems there wouldn't be much incentive to build and install more 350kW units, so the 800V Taycans, EV6s, Ioniq 5s, etc. would always be competing for the few 350kW units available.
True. I forgot about Mercedes EQS (~200kW) and the 2 year free EA charging. Actually all new EVs with 2 year free 30 minute EA charging (per 60 minutes) should just exclusively DC Fast charge to 100% SoC.
As electric eddy said, 800V is the future - or should be, assuming that future EV buyers who are aware of the possibility of charging in 18-20 minutes rather than 40 or more will almost certainly expect, if not demand, the proliferation of 350 kW charging facilities. EV detractors notwithstanding, there appears to be a growing curiosity and slow acceptance in the general public regarding driving electric. The knowledge that charging can be relatively quick is a strong incentive to take the plunge. Of course, more EV manufacturers have to step up their game and offer 400-800V options.
The problem with that idea, is, these slower charging 400V vehicles still plug into the 350 kW chargers and take a lot longer to charge. I'm a Kia EV6 owner in NZ and I've seen many times slow charging Ioniq EV or Hyundai Kona etc plugged in charging at 40-50 kW. The more 800V charging EVs the better I say.
As long as they charge more for using the 350kW unit, then that's fine. Doesn't seem like the Koreans want to open source their 697V architecture.
