World's fastest commercial EV charging stations go live in several cities

After launching China's first commercially available electric vehicle with 800V carborundum platform that allows ultrafast charging for a starting price of US$44,000, XPeng has now begun providing the 480kW S4 charging piles to go with it. The world's most powerful electric car charging stations in a commercial network have gone live in five major cities in China: Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.

The stalls are capable of charging the new G9 electric SUV's battery to 80% in 15 minutes, depending on the trim, and can add 125 miles (200km) of range in just 5 minutes. For comparison, the electric Porsche Taycan, which is also on an 800V charging system, can be brought to 80% charge in about 22 minutes, while Tesla's current generation of Superchargers top out at 250kW. "Superchargers can add up to 200 miles of range in just 15 minutes," says Tesla, while for that amount of time the S4 can bring the big 96 kWh battery of the G9 to 80% charge and provide more than 300 miles of extra range.

The S4 piles are now present in seven of XPeng's ultrafast charging stations, strategically located in the aforementioned major cities where most of the G9's buyers are likely to live. XPeng plans to expand its S4 charging network along major highways next year, and have 2000 ultrafast charging stations by 2025.

The title of "world's fastest charging network" won't be XPeng's for long, of course, as the first cars with CATL's Kirin battery that can be charged to 80% in 10 minutes will have 600kW chargers at their disposal later this year. It will be interesting to compare and see if there is any tangible difference in charging speed, as the car's battery platform has to be able to take advantage of that insane top-off power as well.

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