XPeng’s brand-new 480 kW S4 ultra-fast EV charger adds 210 km of range in just 5 minutes

Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer XPeng has introduced a brand-new ultra-fast EV charging solution, with a claim that it will significantly trim down the charging time. The new S4 ultra-fast charger, which XPeng introduced in China on its eighth anniversary, is an 800 volt class EV charger that promises a peak power output of 480 kW (at up to 670 A and at more than 700 V). It was first announced late last year.

To prove the new charger’s efficiency, XPeng delivered a demonstration by using the charger to recharge its recently launched XPeng G9 EV. In fact, the all-electric XPeng G9 is the first electric model that can make the most of the potential of the new charger.

The video published by the manufacturer shows the XPeng G9 EV’s battery pack getting replenished up to 210 km (131 miles) of CLTC range in merely 5 minutes, charging from a really low state-of-charge (SOC) to around 40 per cent SOC.

To begin with, the charging session started at more than 150 kW (at over 640 V). Within a few steps, the charging power grew to more than 400 kW in around one minute. After 3.5 minutes, a level of over 440 kW was reached (at roughly 700 V).

He Xiaopeng, Chairman and CEO of XPeng, said, “With the support of ultra-fast charging, high range and self-operated charging stations, the market landscape is expected to change and hybrids will be eliminated.”

As the charging session came to an end early, we could not see how fast the EV would charge after the aforementioned narrow SOC window. However, it is usually considered as the best SOC window for high-power charging. Sharing those pretty good results, XPeng pointed out that merican electric car pioneer Tesla Inc.’s Superchargers charge vehicle at 250 kW in V3 version.

The very first XPeng S4 EV charger has been installed at the Sunac Mall in Guangzhou. It is also the 1,000th charging point owned and operated by the company. In nearly 340 cities of China, XPeng has 799 DC chargers and 201 destination charging points.

If everything goes as planned, XPeng will first install the new ultra-fast chargers in ten cities where it has received the highest number of orders for the G9 EV. From next year, the company will start installing the S4 chargers in key cities as well as along major highways. By the end of 2025, it aims to install at least 2,000 S4 chargers in the country.