Lotus officially debuted its newest technological advancement in electric vehicle charging, as reported by Autocar. The British automaker exhibited its innovative EV charging system, which it claims to provide up to 500 kW at the Auto Shanghai 2023.
It is indeed a piece of major news as the most potent EV charger in the UK is currently the ABB Terra 360 with just up to 360kW.
About Lotus’ yet-to-be-named EV tech
Lotus demonstrated the EV charging station at the Shanghai auto show by plugging the Lotus Eletre SUV with a robotic arm. The charging cable automatically comes out from an exterior cover and navigates the EV’s charging port.
Additionally, it seems as though the charging station may be mounted on some kind of floor track. If that’s the case and the track is set up at public stations, it stands to reason that the entire unit can travel up and down the track to fit various EVs’ charging ports and parking arrangements.
The report further indicated that Lotus would launch the robotic EV charger throughout the United Kingdom. However, it will first be deployed as part of a fleet of 50 throughout China, available to non-Lotus EVs.
Lotus’ EV tech to support the advent of fast-charging Chinese EVs
The Lotus Eletre can only manage a charging rate of up to 420 kW. Meanwhile, Hyundai and Kia’s GMP platform, such as the Kia EV6, can manage 350kW. In contrast, many current EVs cannot yet manage such charging rates.
On the other hand, the Chinese model XPeng G9 can support up to 480kW. As for the European-spec G9, it can only manage up to 300kW charging rate.
See Also:
- NaaS debuts its first automatic EV charging robot
- Hyundai and Kia develop one-armed robot for EV charging
- Hyundai creates an EV charging robot
- XPeng’s 1024 Tech Day 2022: Autonomous driving, neutral net-based architecture, and robotaxi fleet
- Lotus Technology starts first customer delivery of Eletre in China
All that said, the report suggests that Lotus’ EV charger will support the emergence of fast-charging China-made EVs.
It is also worth noting that Lotus’ competitor Nio recently launched its first 500 kW EV chargers in 12 cities in China.
