with cars prepared to take advantage of them

The United States has been playing catch-up for some time when it comes to high-power chargers for electric vehicles, many of them capable of delivering 500 kW, 600 kW, and even one megawatt. The problem is that, right now, almost no electric car sold there can swallow such power. In Europe, however, we are starting to see cars that take advantage of this capacity. And although at the moment it is still somewhat testimonial, for the electric promises to be fulfilled, the infrastructure must accompany the innovation of these cars.

Why is it important. For years, recharging has been the great brake on electric cars convincing the general public. The promise of charging as fast as you fill a tank of gas has been promised for some time, and now the technology is starting to live up to it. But a one-megawatt pump is of little use if the car you connect only accepts a fraction of that power.

More fast charging in the US. According to collect InsideEVs, the company ChargePoint presented last month a 600 kW device that it described as “the fastest independent charger for electric cars in the world”, while the Swiss ABB announced 1.2 megawatt units and Kempower showed a charger with an MCS connector capable of delivering 1.2 MW. The Italian Alpitronic, for its part, is preparing chargers that provide up to 1,000 kW to trucks and 600 kW to passenger cars, and which will begin to arrive on American soil at the beginning of next year. Even Tesla, historically limited to 250 or 325 kW, is slowly rolling out its 500 kW V4 Superchargers.

Few take advantage of it. As the same media points out, right now there are no electric cars for sale in the United States that accept more than 500 kW. He Tesla Cybertruck It has been seen charging at 500 kW, but its official specifications still indicate a maximum of 325 kW. The most capable models on the market or about to arrive, such as the Lucid Gravity, the Porsche Cayenne Electric or the BMW iX3reach 400 kW.

The reason for such a rush. Loren McDonald, CEO and Chief Analyst at Chargeonomics, explains told InsideEVs that some of the high-powered Chinese cars could arrive in the United States in the next five years, so these chargers “shield” the facilities for when that happens.

The idea, furthermore, is to distribute the load intelligently between several points according to what each car can absorb, so that a modest model and a high-end model can be plugged in at the same time without either wasting power.

Who is really ahead?. China and Europe are setting the pace in this regard, with systems such as BYD’s 1.5-megawatt “Flash” stationsto which we were able to access first-hand with the presentation in Europe of the Denza Z9GT. More in China than in Europe, the difference is not so much in the raw power of the plugs as in the fact that manufacturers are releasing vehicles prepared to take advantage of it. In Europe we also have a long way to go to be able to take advantage of these capabilities in commercial passenger cars, but little by little we are getting to know more brands that want to join.

And Spain, where is it? He latest Barometer of ANFAC Electromobility, corresponding to the first quarter of 2026, makes it clear that the priority here continues to be the basics, that is, having enough points and making them work. Spain closed March with 55,077 public access charging points, after adding 2,005 in the quarter, a growth that the report itself describes as lower than that recorded in the same periods of the previous three years.

The quality problem. Beyond the total number, ANFAC data points to two weaknesses. The first, power: only 31% of the infrastructure exceeds 22 kW, far from the 55% objective that the association sets for 2026. The remaining 69% are low power points that require charging times of at least three hours. The second, reliability: ANFAC estimates that 17,073 points are out of service (24% of the total installed) due to breakdown, poor condition or lack of connection to the electrical network. If they worked, Spain would be close to 72,150 points.

The high power, still testimonial. Chargers of 250 kW or more, those that truly allow recharging in minutes, There are only 2,469 units in all of Spain.. They grew by 309 during the quarter, and the report indicates that around 75% of high power points respond to projects by the automobile manufacturers themselves. The big obstacle, according to the association, continues to be administrative, since processing difficulties and, above all, access to the electrical distribution network keep many projects paralyzed.

Cover image | myenergi

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