ABB & EVgo Partner To Install First (Non-Tesla) “High-Power” Fast Charger In US
EVgo and ABB yesterday unveiled the first “High-Power” fast charging station for EVs in the US. Interestingly, it was unveiled in Fremont, California. Fremont is well known in EV circles as the home of Tesla, and as such, it is quickly becoming the epicenter of EV activity, as evidenced by this installation.
It’s for exactly this reason that EVgo and ABB opted to install the high-power charging station in the parking lot of a very normal-looking Lucky Supermarket on Mowry Avenue, as the area has the highest traffic in the EVgo network.
Kicking things off, this new HPFC is capable of a maximum charging rate of 150 kW, which is already 3 times faster than the most comparable non-Tesla DC Fast Charging station installed in the US today. Looking across town to Tesla, even Tesla Superchargers aren’t quite at parity with the top speed of the new station — though, to be fair, Tesla has been doling out power at greater than 100 kW for years now and is typically maxing out at around 120–130 kW in current-production Superchargers.
Back to this new ABB charger, it is capable of 150 kW today, but — and this is a big but — it can be upgraded to deliver up to 350 kW (per the press release, even though the official ABB Twitter account notes 320 kW) as vehicle technologies catch up with it, due to the station’s modular nature.