Heavy transport demands a significant amount of power. To show what the charging system of tomorrow looks like for heavy electric vehicles, the Megawatt Charging System (MCS) is now launched. In 2024, we will see it on the market.
Charging Interface Initiative – CharIN – a global association that wants to achieve a standardised charging infrastructure, has been working on a more powerful system for several years. At the 35th Electric Vehicle Symposium in June 2022, the MCS was introduced when a Alpitronic-charger was connected to a Scania-truck, with the new standardised connector for MCS and simulating charging at 1,2 MW. This technology will enable electric trucks going forward without disrupting the logistic flows on the European and North American transport network.
“The MCS is a milestone for especially long haulage trucks, where driving and rest times needs to be kept – drive for 4,5 h and rest for 45 min. That will need both quick charging and high capacity due to battery size,” says Fredrik Allard, Head of E-mobility, Scania.
Global agreement
The MSC will work up to 3,000 A and 1,25 kV to deliver up to 3,75 MW power when charging. “To make things as easy as possible, MCS is based on a global agreement on technical specifications, with support of a large portion of the industry, where CharIN has been the perfect incubator delivering ready concept of MCS that now are handed over to become ISO and IEC standards,” says Johan Lindström, Technical Manager VCB Vehicle Technology, Scania.
This means among other things that the MCS inlet will be placed at the same position in the truck – left-front side behind first axle – to simplify harmonise infrastructure layouts.
”To develop a standard in the international forum is essential to have harmonised solutions to lower costs and increase interoperability without compromising on safety and uptime. It is also imperative to include the MCS standards in the legislation that will regulate the minimum requirements for the infrastructure of alternative fuels in Europe, a work where we are actively lobbying on”, says Jorge Soria Galvarro, Scania Senior Technical Adviser for Charging Infrastructure.
Ready in 2024
The MCS will not only be used for road vehicles. Other vessels at sea and in the air, have paid interest too. The MCS connector is displayed already this year, but the final version of the system will be ready in 2024. Since the number of stakeholders from both the industry and academia are eager to make this work, pilots where they try Megawatt-charging for trucks are ongoing in Europe and North America.
“Charging infrastructure is needed to be up to speed on electrification. We see that the total cost of ownership will be similar between diesel and electric trucks in just a couple of years, but we want electric to be the first choice earlier than that. MCS could be a factor that pushes this development,” Allard concludes.