Swiss engineering firm ABB has unveiled its new Terra 360 modular charging station, which it says is capable of fully charging any electric vehicle in 15 minutes or less – making it the fastest EV charging station on the market.
The Terra 360 has a maximum output of 360 kW and features dynamic power distribution, enabling it to charge up to four electric vehicles at once. The company says the Terra 360 charging station will be available in Europe from the end of 2021, and will launch in the USA, Latin America and Asia Pacific regions in 2022.
ABB says the Terra 360 is appropriate for use in public charging arrays, such as those found at fueling stations, convenience stores and other retail locations. The charger can also be installed on commercial premises for fleet operators, where it could be used to charge battery-operated fleet vehicles like utility vans or semi-trucks.
One version of the Terra 360 offers an integrated 27-inch advertisement screen, allowing the operator to sell ad space on the charger to negate the cost of installing it. Advertisement screens like this are currently used on certain fuel pumps in the United States and elsewhere.
Frank Muehlon, President of ABB’s E-mobility division, said the Terra 360 is launching at the perfect time, as many countries are now cracking down on emissions-producing vehicles and promoting EV adoption.
“With governments around the world writing public policy that favors electric vehicles and charging networks to combat climate change, the demand for EV charging infrastructure, especially charging stations that are fast, convenient and easy to operate is higher than ever,” said Muehlon. “The Terra 360, with charging options that fit a variety of needs, is the key to fulfilling that demand and accelerating e-mobility adoption globally.”
North American EV drivers may have already used less advanced ABB charging stations, which are currently in use at IONITY and Electrify America charging stations in the United States and Canada. ABB also sells charging solutions for single-home residential housing and apartments/condominiums.
The arrival of the Terra 360 should be welcome news for General Motors, which hopes to drive EV adoption in the coming years with new electric vehicle offerings like the GMC Hummer EV, Cadillac Lyriq and Chevy Silverado EV, among others.
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Comments
It’s nice to see more high speed chargers getting built, but I’m disappointed to hear they’re incorporating adspace to pay for them.
Yawn, it takes me five minutes to fill my gas tank with 93 unleaded.
EV owners never have to waste 5 minutes of their time filling up at a station when they plug in at home. Plus they don’t have to go out of their way to get to a gas station.
Nice you have so much time to waste every week.
Sure they do, they may save 5 minutes a week on an ICE vehicle but first time they are running errands and low they need to go out of their way and find a place to charge for half hour. Lets not even talk about road trips and all the route planning that goes in to it. I just chatted with my coworker whos husband as a Tesla, they took it to Kansas. She said it wasn’t bad but they had to plan their route and one of the stations had a few chargers down and a wait just to get plugged in, it set them back nearly 3 hours. Can’t just take off out to West Texas without a definite planned route with an electric car, can’t take a trailer anywhere more than 100 miles away, can’t hit the back country off roading, there and all that adds up. Those 5 minutes saved a week is eaten up in the first road trip, time out being caught low on juice or the first time you try and do something you can’t that an ICE vehicle can and need to rent, where are those cost and time savings now?
Per Paul M, time is such a huge factor. So if true, why are you wasting time doing a road trip. Fly to destination then and rent a car.
Ultimately you’re going to make every excuse in the world to hate on EVs. It’s time all the EV haters change their perspective and fill their glass half full. Look at how EVs are going to benefit them. Life will be such a happier place without all your negativity.
People can have there own opinions are you getting paid to shill for gm or do you do it for free?
Their*
Get out of here sexist bigot
What business is it of anyone’s if he wants to take a road trip and spend less time looking at a charging station and more time looking at scenery?
@Paul M: Cool…
Not cool 👆
Great BUT the faster the battery is charged, the shorter it’s life is.
Does that speed damage the battery over time?
No, not if the battery and charging equipment are made for it, which the brand new ones coming out are, like the new Hyundai EVs are on a 800 volt architecture and can charge up to 350kW. Fully charging is a misnomer, as charging to 100% due to the charging curve will usually take much longer. However, realistically a 120kW battery will take 20 minutes to charge to 80% or about 96kW which will give a range of about 300 miles. Road trip habits will definitely need to change for EVs as 20 minutes its much longer than 5 minutes for a gasoline car fill-up. But 20 minutes is a very quick lunch and most charger are located near fast food places and you have to stop anyway for food on a long road trip and most people don’t travel more than 600 miles in a day on long road trips, so long road trips ARE practical even today. More planning is needed but still very doable. I’ve done it in my old Bolt EV many times with no problem.
Shill alert 🚨 👆
Are these times calculated or actually real world data. Doesn’t the batteries charge speed fall off significantly at 80%, regardless of available charging power ?
The operational word is “capable”. Is that speed capable with a single user as well as when all outlets are being connected to other EVs? My thinking is that as more users hook up, the power available if fractionated.
Well, if someone were to make a car that actually could accept 360 kw, in my area of usually ‘Cheap Electricity’, the demand charge for all taxes and fees of this one unit would be (at $14/kw) would be over $5000/month or $60,000 per year, besides the energy actually used….Any for-profit business would have an incentive to have this high cost not increase – therefore – 4 cars charging at 90 kw is what to expect.
Tesla does more or less the same thing with their ‘Version 3 Superchargers’.
You only get full power if the other 3 stalls are empty.
Haha !!! Rather moot point at the moment since GM isn’t selling ANY plug-ins currently…
I thought things were bad when they discontinued the ELR and only had the VOLT for sale… Of course then they discontinued the VOLT and only had the BOLT EV for sale – which I beg to differ with the author – this car under ANY scenario will not charge up in 15 minutes since the charging speed tops out at 55 kw. But now NOTHING is available for sale.
This Asea-Brown-Bavari thing is huge for what you get – and seeing as they have 350 kw Electrify America things at a local Walmart parking lot – (thank you Volkswagen and Robert Bosch for paying for them), an under 3% increase isn’t going to make any difference – if and when GM decides to start selling plug-ins again.
Well, it is not the most powerful or fastest in the world. There are 600kW chargers by Kalmar, Heliox, and GAC Aion out for e-Buses, e-Trucks and professional racing EVs. Technically, it could charge a 120kW battery to 80% (96kW = 300 miles) in 10 minutes.
Are all these various types of charging stations that are coming on line going to be compatible with ALL types of electric vehicles or do you have to search around for a “station” that works with your car?
Bobert: Theoretically, yes… But nothing is as easy as buying gasoline from a gasoline station…
Gas stations are really amazing in this sense: In view of all the safety and fire- suppression features all the dispensaries have to have, they work much more than 98% of the time. In the larger stations there is a backup for the regular fuel pump so that if a pump fails, you can still get 87 octane, albeit somewhat more slowly during a busy period. The credit card reader is usually flawless also.
With electrics, the relatively slow ‘Level 2’ charging docking stations are hit and miss as far as reliability to the point that, while planning a trip – you can’t be guaranteed they will work and/or be available.
Level 3 (the so-called DCFC (direct current fast charge) ) facilities have also had piss-poor reliability, besides having 2 standards in North America – that of Chademo and J1772 Type 1. ChargePoints and Blinks are particularly bad…
Other Level 2 stations that may be free, sometimes require an ‘APP’ to make them usable, and phone calls and other nonsense are necessary to get the things going. That is, if they work in the first place.
In the BOLT ev, a poorly designed car connector forces you to lift the connector up while negotiation with the ‘station’ so that all the control wires remain connected.
Since Gasoline stations have been optimized to the point of essentially flawless operation , – the bar is high, and i don’t think former gasoline station customers will put up with all the silliness and defective charging products I have had to endure the past 11 years. I’ve driven plug-ins exclusively since early 2011.
I read some of the comments from above and for the most part, we all can come to an understanding that the conversion timeline from ICE to Electrification is in it’s early stages and yes we have a long trek ahead in order for Charging Infrastructure to not only be more convenient in terms of quantity in locations but also Charging Times within 5 minutes or less. Technology will eventually come along that will bring that possibility to light within a 5 to 10 year window at best as to where all of this will pan out.
I wonder—who’s going to build all the new power plants and string the new wires to replace the current aging infrastructure? Also, how much is it going to cost to fill up with this new charger? I’m not against EV’s. If you want one, go ahead. They’re just not for me. I made a 750 mile trip in my current ICE vehicle in about 13 hours last week. Doubt if I could have done it that fast in any EV. Besides, I checked, and there are no fast charging stations where I was going. I’m sure the family members I stayed with would have loved to see their electric bill after my stay..
Hyrolr: Areas of the country differ, but modernization of the ‘grid’ has continually been on-going…
Its the ‘Wokeness’ policies that are the problem – namely yearly black/brownouts in California and now Texas…
You would have all these troubles WITH or WITHOUT electric vehicles.
Don’t know how many years away we are but Super Charging an EV will be just as fast as Filling a Gas Tank