Move over BYD, ZEEKR unveiled a 1.2 Megawatt EV charger that could be the best in the world
Two weeks after BYD unveiled a new EV charger capable of 1,000 kW (1 MW) rates, fellow Chinese automaker ZEEKR has unveiled a new EV fast charger of its own, offering rates as high as 1.2 MW. ZEEKR’s vice president recently shared details of the latest charging technology before it makes its public debut in a few weeks.
On its Weibo page earlier this month, BYD teased the capabilities of a new EV architecture it calls the “Super E-Platform,” sharing that it will enable charging parity with gas station visits.
To achieve that, BYD promised 1,000 kW charge speeds—double the current industry leaders, including Tesla. In reality, it’s tripling the standard as most fast chargers on the market can only reach about 350 kW, and many of them (in the US, at least) are usually more in the 200s.
While some ultra-luxe EV models are powered by higher-voltage platforms, 800V has been the ceiling for a while, and to be honest, most models today cannot even hit 350 kW when charging. BYD, however, hopes to support its new 1,000V EV platform with 1 Megawatt EV chargers, hitting the market as early as this week.
BYD’s 1MW EV charger was easily the most powerful on the market but held that reign for a mere two weeks before ZEEKR said, “Hold my Baijiu.” During a recent EV conference in China, a ZEEKR executive unveiled a new EV fast charger capable of 1.2 Megawatt rates, setting the stage for what could be the fastest charging speeds in the world once it officially debuts next month.
ZEEKR 1.2 MW EV charger to debut at Shanghai Auto Show
ZEEKR shared some teasers of the new EV fast charger on Weibo following a speech by its vice president, Zhao Yuhui, during the recent China EV100 Forum. He spoke publicly, as seen in the video here.
Zhao said ZEEKR has developed a new fully liquid-cooled EV fast charger with a peak power of 1.2 MW per charging gun that will be released in Q2 2025 and offer the highest charging power in the world, besting BYD’s new charger by 200 kW.
As seen in the image above, Zhao pointed out the progress ZEEKR has made over the past four years, bolstering its charging rates from 260 kW in 2021 to 600 kW a year later and achieving 800 kW rates in 2023. According to Zhao, ZEEKR intends to lead the charging industry into an era of ultra-fast speeds at the 1 MW level with its new EV fast charger.
While we know ZEEKR’s new fast charger will be more powerful than BYD, it has yet to unveil a vehicle that can support such rates, unlike BYD, which is launching two new models on its Super E-Platform in early April. We also don’t know the exact speeds ZEEKR’s new EV charger will deliver.
When BYD unveiled its 1 Megawatt charger, it said it could deliver 2 km of range per second and 400 km (249 miles) during a five-minute charge. At 1.2 MW, we expect ZEEKR to surpass those charge rates, but it will depend on the architecture of the EV to accept such massive power.
ZEEKR promised to share more during the Shanghai Auto Show in late April, where it will officially debut the EV fast charger to the public. We will be there this year and will report back with all the exciting details.
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In a joint statement, French and German economists have called on governments to adopt “a common approach” to decarbonize European trucking fleets – and they’re calling for a focus on fully electric trucks, not hydrogen.
France and Germany are the two largest economies in the EU, and they share similar challenges when it comes to freight decarbonization. The two countries also share a border, and the traffic between the two nations generates major cross-border flows that create common externalities between the two countries.
At the same time, the EU’s transport sector has struggled to reduce emissions at the same rate as other industries – and road freight in particular is a major contributor to harmful carbon emissions issue due to that industry’s heavy reliance on diesel-powered trucks.
And for once, it seems like rail isn’t a viable option:
While rail remains competitive mainly for heavy, homogeneous goods over long distances. Most freight in Europe is indeed transported over distances of less than 200 km and involves consignment weights of up to 30 tonnes (GCEE, 2024) In most such cases, transportation by rail instead of truck is not possible or not competitive. Moreover, taking into account the goods currently transported in intermodal transport units over distances of more than 300 km, the modal shift potential from road to rail would be only 6% in Germany and less than 2% in France.
That leaves trucks – and, while numerous government incentives currently exist to promote the parallel development of both hydrogen and battery electric vehicle infrastructures, the study is clear in picking a winner.
“Policies should focus on battery-electric trucks (BET) as these represent the most mature and market-ready technology for road freight transport,” reads the the FGCEE statement. “Hence, to ramp-up usage of BET public funding should be used to accelerate the roll-out of fast-charging networks along major corridors and in private depots.”
The appeal was signed by the co-chair of the advisory body on the German side is the chairwoman of the German Council of Economic Experts, Monika Schnitzer. Camille Landais co-chairs the French side. On the German side, the appeal was signed by four of the five experts; Nuremberg-based energy economist Veronika Grimm (who also sits on the National Hydrogen Council, which is committed to promoting H2 trucks and filling stations) did not sign.
You can read an English version of the CAE FGCEE joint statement here.
Electrek’s Take
MAN Trucks’ CEO famously said that it was “impossible” for hydrogen to compete with BEVs, and even committed to building 200 hydrogen-powered semi truck to prove out that hypothesis.
He’s not alone. MAN’s board member for research and development, Frederik Zohm, said that the company is the one saying hydrogen still has years to go. “(MAN) continues to research fuel cell technology based on battery electrics,” he said, in a statement quoted by Hydrogen Insight, before another board member added that, “we (MAN) expect that, in the future, we will be able to best serve the vast majority of our customers’ transport applications with battery-electric trucks.”
With companies like Volvo and Renault and now Mercedes racking up millions of miles on their respective battery electric semi truck fleets, it’s no longer even close. EV is the way.
SOURCE | IMAGES: CAE FGCEE; via Electrive.
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GE Vernova has produced over half the turbines needed for SunZia Wind, which will be the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere when it comes online in 2026.
GE Vernova has manufactured enough turbines at its Pensacola, Florida, factory to supply over 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of the turbines needed for the $5 billion, 2.4 GW SunZia Wind, a project milestone. The wind farm will be sited in Lincoln, Torrance, and San Miguel counties in New Mexico.
At a ribbon-cutting event for Pensacola’s new customer experience center, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik noted that since 2023, the company has invested around $70 million in the Pensacola factory.
The Pensacola investments are part of the announcement GE Vernova made in January that it will invest nearly $600 million in its US factories and facilities over the next two years to help meet the surging electricity demands globally. GE Vernova says it’s expecting its investments to create more than 1,500 new US jobs.
Vic Abate, CEO of GE Vernova Wind, said, “Our dedicated employees in Pensacola are working to address increasing energy demands for the US. The workhorse turbines manufactured at this world-class factory are engineered for reliability and scalability, ensuring our customers can meet growing energy demand.”
SunZia Wind and Transmission will create US history’s largest clean energy infrastructure project.
Read more: The largest clean energy project in US history closes $11B, starts full construction
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