American Company to Deploy 600 kW EV Charging Tech

­China has a healthy lead in nearly every facet of EVs – from rare earth minerals to energy storage – and their charging tech (and infrastructure) puts ours to shame. But an American company is desperately trying to catch up, and they’re about to narrow China’s lead in fast charging.

In America, companies like Gravity Charging and Electrify America hold the lead for theoretical maximum charging output at 500 kW. But a limited number of vehicles can even accept that capacity, with the Tesla Cybertruck being amongst the few.

The effective U.S. maximum is more like 350 kW, though that can and should change in the future. China, meanwhile, sports a super-fast charging output of 1,000 kW, with Build Your Dream’s (BYD) "Super e-Platform" including flash-charging batteries and silicon carbide (SiC) power chips that give it 1-megawatt (1000kW) charging power.  

Of course, the 1000 kW rate is far from universal, though companies like Huawei have also deployed 600 kW technology, which is what the Campbell, CA-based ChargePoint is aiming for.

The American charging company is set to deploy its ChargePoint Express Grid tech, which would upgrade its DC fast charging architecture to 600 kW for passenger vehicles and up to 3.75 megawatts for heavy-duty trucks – as The Verge points out, the latter is enough to power an entire football stadium.

And while most vehicles in America can’t yet accept the full 600 kW, the company is aiming to future-proof the fleet and help keep pace with China.

“We’ve got to catch up,” said ChargePoint CEO Rick Wilmer.

“The charging industry routinely discusses the ‘now,’ without saying much about the future. ChargePoint remains focused on the opportunities ahead of us. Innovations that previously seemed futuristic are about to materialize….”

The company also claims the charging tech will be 30% cheaper to install and 30% cheaper to operate than current DC fast chargers. They plan to roll out their ChargePoint Express Grid tech in 2026.