New standard aims to speed rollout of compatible megawatt HGV chargers

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has published IEC TS 63379, covering megawatt-level DC charging for heavy vehicles and vessels.

The IEC said existing standards for smaller battery chargers do not allow the large batteries used by heavy-duty vehicles to be recharged within the time available for commercial operations, particularly on long-distance routes where opportunities for intermediate charging are limited.

Megawatt charging systems can provide several megawatts of power, but until now many systems have been bespoke, creating compatibility issues between different vehicle and charging equipment manufacturers.

The new standard sets out common requirements for the charging interface, including connector configurations, pins and contacts, safety, thermal management, temperature monitoring, power levels, bidirectional charging and operation in extreme conditions.

The IEC said this should allow megawatt charging facilities to be deployed with wider compatibility between vehicles and charging equipment.

Dr Frederik Zohm, executive board member for research and development at MAN Truck & Bus, said: “Megawatt charging will be a game changer for long-distance freight transport and regular coach services.”

He said charging times could be reduced sufficiently for vehicles to operate on long-distance routes without restrictions comparable with today’s situation.

The standard also covers charging for vessels. Niklas Dahlberg, project manager at Swedish company Metstech, said high-powered charging already existed for electric ferries but systems were often bespoke, meaning a vessel could only charge at ports using the same system.

He said the new standard would reduce the time and complexity involved by providing a common approach.

Amin Saidi, lead software engineer at ADVANTICS, said the standard was necessary for heavy-duty vehicle electrification to reach large-scale adoption.

He said the Combined Charging System (CCS) used for smaller vehicles was not designed for the higher voltage levels required by heavy-duty transport and was limited to 1,000V.

ADVANTICS has developed 1,500V power modules that can be stacked to deliver up to 6MW for megawatt charging applications.

However, Saidi said the technology would not achieve widespread adoption without interoperability between the vehicle, charger and communications systems.

IEC TS 63379 provides the standard interface configurations and accessories needed for conductive charging at megawatt levels.

It will be complemented by IEC 61851-23-3, which is currently under development and will specify charging equipment for bidirectional energy transfer between the electricity network and electric vehicles.