Huawei opens truck charging park in China

The electronics company Huawei has opened a large charging park for heavy electric trucks in the Chinese province of Sichuan. There are almost 200 charging points, including 18 megawatt chargers with Huawei's own hardware.

According to Huawei, the facility is designed for a cumulative output of up to 100 MW. In the first phase, 50 MW will be available. The company estimates that up to 300,000 kWh per day can be supplied to around 700 electric trucks.

The megawatt charger unveiled in April will also be used. The charging park offers 18 charging points with 1.44 MW, 108 charging points with 500 kW each and 72 charging points with 720 kW each. While the lower-power fast chargers are sufficient to fill the battery of an electric truck during normal breaks, the megawatt charger is significantly faster, provided the vehicle is compatible. Theoretically, 24 kWh can be transferred per minute, which would correspond to power for around 100 kilometres in a heavy electric truck with a charging time of five minutes. With a 400 kWh battery, it should take 15 minutes to reach an 80 per cent charge level. The company also relies on its own solutions for the charging park’s energy supply, such as a PV canopy over the parking spaces with up to 1 MW peak power.

In addition to improved user-friendliness, the system is also expected to offer lower costs. Huawei itself has not commented on this, but according to the report by CarNewsChina, truck operators are expected to save 1.5 yuan in energy costs per 100 kilometres. Although this would only amount to 18 cents, it could add up to 150,000 yuan or around 18,000 euros per vehicle for a mileage of 100,000 kilometres per year.

The charging park, called Sichuan Yuanqi Xingguang Heavy-Duty Truck Megawatt Supercharging Station, is located in Sichuan Province in the centre of the country, more precisely in the Mianyang area north of Chengdu. The site is intended to serve as a demonstration facility for Huawei’s megawatt charging technology. When the megawatt charger was unveiled in April, Huawei announced its intention to develop a megawatt charging network for heavy-duty trucks in collaboration with industry partners.

In the case of the first location, the testing of the charging stations is linked to a specific application scenario: the region is known for its sand and gravel pits, which means that there are a large number of trucks transporting bulk goods in the area, which are well-suited for electrification due to their short to medium distances.

huaweicentral.com, carnewschina.com

This article was first published by Sebastian Schaal for electrive’s German edition.