On its eighth anniversary, XPeng introduced in China its all-new ultra-fast charging solution, which is expected to significantly reduce the charging time.
XPeng's new S4 ultra-fast charger, first announced in late 2021, is an 800 volt class EV charger with a peak power output of 480 kW (at up to 670 A and at over 700 V).
In its presentation, XPeng showed an example charging session of its recently launched XPeng G9 model. The XPeng G9 is the first model that can utilize most of the potential of the new charger.
According to the video, the car replenished about 210 km (131 miles) of CLTC range in just 5 minutes, charging from a very low state-of-charge (SOC) to about 40% SOC.
Initially, the session started at over 150 kW (at over 640 V). In a few steps, the charging power increased to over 400 kW within roughly 1 minute. A level of more than 440 kW was reached after 3 and a half minutes (at roughly 700 V).
Unfortunately, the charging session ends early so we can't see how fast the G9 would charge after the relatively narrow SOC window, usually considered as the optimum one for high-power charging.
Nonetheless, those are pretty good results for the Chinese GB/T charging connector, probably the highest commercially available in China. XPeng noted also an advantage over Tesla Superchargers (250 kW in V3 version) and Porsche Taycan (which charges at up to 270 kW).
2,000 S4 chargers by 2025
The first XPeng S4 charger has been installed at the Sunac Mall in Guangzhou and it's also the 1,000th charging point of the company (counting 799 DC chargers and 201 destination charging points in 337 cities in China).
In the near term, XPeng intends to focus on the installations of S4 chargers in 10 cities with the highest number of G9 orders. In 2023, S4 will be installed in key cities and along major highway, while by 2025 the company would like to install 2,000 S4 chargers.
With the new 800 V electric models with large battery packs, the new ultra-fast chargers should significantly improve the charging performance and make BEV recharging on a long-distance travel more similar to refueling of a conventional vehicle.
Meanwhile, Europe and North America are currently expanding its CCS networks, with a typical output of up to 350 kW (but there is a potential for more in the future).
