High-power charging has become one of the main trends of the current new energy vehicle replenishment, but it is still too early for it to really land, and still needs to face industry challenges such as large-scale listing of supporting models and unification of charging pile standards.

At the second charging facility technology innovation conference held on August 4, Liu Yongdong, deputy secretary general of the China Electricity Council, said the trend of rapid development of high-power charging has become more and more obvious. High-power charging, also known as fast charging, is defined by the China Charging Alliance as a technology that charges new energy vehicles to 80% within 10-15 minutes with a power of 350KW or more.

Li Houzhi, chief expert of electric charging operation of the State Grid, told reporters that the charging facility end has basically the technology of high-power charging now, but the actual investment process still needs to be developed in coordination with vehicle enterprises.

"It is impossible that the models of high-voltage platform are not yet listed, and charging operators will invest in building tens of thousands of high-power charging piles and wait, which is unrealistic." He said.

At present, the voltage platform of domestic hot models is generally at 400V, and raising the voltage platform to 800V can increase the charging power, thus shortening the charging time.

According to GaoGong lithium data, in 800V high-voltage conditions, the charging power can reach 300-500KW, and 5-10 minutes to complete 30%-80% of the charging volume. Some of the car companies, including Polar Fox Alpha and Xiaopeng, have been delivered this year to support fast charging 800V high-voltage platform models.

Liu Yongdong told reporters that high-power charging has certain safety risks, supporting liquid cooling devices and strengthening temperature control is particularly important.

He explained that when the current increases, the charging gun will heat up, the heat must be taken away through the liquid cooling device, but this will involve the structural design of the charging pile, including the electrical energy layout, the placement of high-power modules, etc., is a system engineering.

Compared with the complexity of the liquid cooling technology, the temperature control program from the operation point of view has been piloted in some regions. Li Houzhi said, in the process of vehicle charging, the charging pile operator can monitor the temperature, current and other conditions in real time, and timely cut off the power supply to prevent overcharging. At the same time, it can also track some of the data interaction between the car and the charging pile to correct the problem battery in advance.

The battle of standards is also one of the difficulties in the promotion of high-power charging at this stage. At present, there are two sets of domestic high-power charging facility standards, 2015+ and CHAOJI, which are revised under the leadership of the Institute of Automotive Standardization of the China National Automobile Center and the China Electricity Federation. Charging operators and vehicle manufacturers support different standards, which brings troubles to the construction and operation of charging facilities.

Li Houzhi believes that the biggest conflict between the two sets of standards is whether to "reopen the drum" or "upgrade and patch". "If the CHAOJI standard, you need to adopt a new interface, but it has the advantage of circumventing many charging technology difficulties." He pointed out that the advantage of the 2015+ standard is that there is no need to change the interface, the pressure on the OEM will be less, but it is difficult to break through the existing technical ceiling.

Mu Xiaopeng, the chief expert of charging operator TCC, said that there is no clear answer to the discussion on the two sets of standards, and he hopes that charging companies and car companies can strengthen communication and try to go in one route.

At present, private charging piles are still mainly slow charging, the accelerated development of high-power fast charging does not mean that it will completely replace slow charging. Li Houzhi told reporters that from the data of OEMs in recent years, the installation rate of private charging piles is about 50%, that is, for every 100 cars sold, there are about 50 sets of private charging piles.

He believes that for private car owners, communities and offices are their main charging scenarios. Due to the long parking time, the demand for high-power charging is not high, and their needs can be met by using intelligent and orderly slow charging technology.