The 3.75MW MCS standard for charging heavy-duty electric vehicles is official and first 1MW stations will have Tesla compatibility

The CharIN task force created in 2018 to tackle the problem of fast charging upcoming heavy-duty electric vehicles like long-haul semi trucks, buses, planes, or ferries, has standardized a new Megawatt Charging System (MCS) that can deliver up to 3.75MW of power per charger. The first MCS charging stations, however, will be 1MW and will be backwards compatible with existing charging standards like those of Tesla or the CCS one other electric cars use by simply including a second charger for smaller electric cars. 

Whether that second charger will be with a Tesla or a CCS connector will depend on the location, but the MCS standard strives for global acceptance by being built on the "benefits and the features of the Combined Charging System (CCS) based on ISO/IEC 15118," clarifies CharIN. The new system even mandates the location of the charging port on the heavy-duty electric trucks to be at the front left of the vehicles at waist height for easier plug-ins.

The new MCS standard paves the way for the proliferation of long-haul electric trucks like the Tesla Semi that recently went up for preorder. There were rumors that Tesla, which is part of the initial CharIN task force, has been waiting for the standardization of the Megawatt Charging System to go ahead with the Semi's development and production.

After first being announced at the CharIN North America Conference in 2018, the working MCS standard made a cameo at the EVS35 expo in Oslo by pairing a 1MW Alpitronic station charger with a Scania electric truck. According to CharIN, the final documentation of the Megawatt Charging System for heavy-duty electric vehicles is expected to be published in 2024, at which point station makers can start rolling out their long-haul truck charger networks in earnest.

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