Australia commissions world's fastest EV charger with 5x the power of a Tesla Semi V4 Supercharger

Australian mining giant Fortescue has gotten a multimillion grant from the government to develop and deploy the 6 MW electric vehicle charger that will power its new 240-ton electric haul trucks and other electrified mining equipment.

When put into operation in 2025, these will be the world's most powerful electric vehicle chargers, with five times the peak output of Tesla's new V4 Supercharger cabinets that are able to top off its Semi.

With the 6 MW charger, it will take just 30 minutes to top up the humongous 1.9 MWh battery pack of Liebherr's 240-ton T 264 haul trucks in the open pits of Fortescue's Pilbara ore mines.

They are retrofits from the diesel version that is powered by Cummins QSK 60 engines, and Fortescue plans to buy hundreds of those in a $4 billion deal that also includes excavators and dozers.

The whole project is under the auspices of its Fortescue Zero undertaking that aims to hit zero emissions from working the Pilbara mines by 2030.

This is where the Australian Renewable Energy Agency comes to help with an $A10 million grant because, as the assistant minister for Climate Change and Energy Josh Wilson puts it, "Fortescue’s fast charger development is a smart and forward-looking project that will help Western Australia’s mining sector electrify their operations and contribute to the critical task of decarbonizing our economy."

In their turn, the CEO of the Fortescue Zero project, Ellie Coates, chimes in:

These innovative chargers are designed to be a safe, rugged, high-power and scalable fast charging solution for multiple different vehicle applications. Leveraging our world-class capability in battery and charging solutions from motorsport, the fast chargers have been developed for the challenging conditions of the Pilbara. Equipped with robotic connection options, they will be able to power Fortescue’s future 240-tonne Liebherr T 264 battery electric trucks in just 30 minutes.

The 30-minute charge of a giant 1.9 MWh battery pack would be a sight to behold when the 6 MW piles are up and running next year, and Fortescue aims to deploy 250 fast chargers in total to serve its iron ore mining operation by 2030.

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