Technical difficulties: serious heat generation caused by high power
Overcharging can bring users a more convenient experience. Who doesn't want to fully charge the vehicle in 5 minutes, but the problems of overcharging have also stumped many car companies.
With simple physical knowledge, overcharging is actually increasing the charging power. According to the power formula: P=U×I, that is, increasing the voltage or current can increase the power.
Of course, it seems simple in theory, but not so easy in practice. If the current is increased, due to the limitation of the internal space of the charging pile, heat will rapidly accumulate in the charging pile, so that the temperature of the pile body will continue to rise, affecting the stable use of internal components. In order to ensure the stable operation of the supercharged pile and improve the safety and reliability of the equipment, the heat dissipation problem must be solved first.
Solution: Increase Cable VS Liquid Cooling
There are mainly two solutions for the pain point of heat dissipation: 1. Increasing the cable area to increase the current carrying capacity; 2. Using better cooling technology to enable the module or cable to cool down faster.
At present, some manufacturers in the market have adopted the first solution, and the result is: heavy gun head, thick cable, and poor user experience. When charging, the car owner needs to unplug the gun head weighing 3~4 kg, and also drag the long and thick charging cable on the ground, which is very unfriendly to female car owners.
The second solution is adopting better cooling technology.
T company is the first car company in the world to adopt liquid-cooled charging. In March 2019, V3 supercharged pile debuted in the world. The liquid-cooled charging cable used is about 44% smaller than the diameter of the V2 supercharged pile , only 23.87mm.
Subsequently, more and more companies chose liquid cooling technology.
In August 2021, GAC Aion A480 supercharged pile was released. The entire pile body adopts liquid cooling technology and lightweight liquid-cooled cables. In April 2022, TELD liquid-cooled super-charging pile was launched, with maximum charging power of 600kW and liquid-cooled control system. In August, Xiaopeng S4 ultra-fast charging pile was launched, the maximum power of a single pile is 480kW, the maximum current is 670A, and it also adopts liquid cooling technology.
Compared with the traditional air-cooled charging pile, the liquid-cooled charging pile not only has a super fast charging speed, but also has the advantages of low noise, low heat generation and high safety. At the same time, the charging equipment is light in weight, bringing a more comfortable charging experience.