Porsche unveils fast, low-cost 'pit stop' EV charging stations
Fast charging stations promise to end the long wait to top up electric cars, but the technology is expensive, bulky and a little intimidating. Thankfully, Porsche might have solved all three problems in one go. It just unveiled an "electric pit stop" whose design promises to make the company's 800V charging more accessible. Rather than load everything a charging station needs into a single cabinet, Porsche splits things into modular "FlexBoxes" that can offload some of the work and stay far from the customer -- you might only see the charging pole itself.
The modular approach boosts efficiency to about 95 percent for the full system, Porsche said, lowering costs for charging station hosts. And since the system can sit up to 200 meters (656 feet) away, a provider could tuck the modules out of sight.
Porsche hasn't said when it would make the "pit stop" design available, although it's planning a network of 500 fast charging stations by the end of 2019. It could theoretically use this for some installation and seems to be an appropriate solution. Particularly given there's no rush to install the stations until 800V-friendly cars like the Taycan are on the road.
