Whats with the 800v charging on some third party EVs?

[user212_nr]

Porche and GM are bragging about their 800v charging capabilities on their cars, but it sounds to me like a really cheap way for them to boast that their cars are better, as not everyone knows that charging is based off of watts. So they can do 350 kW, but Tesla is already doing 250kv at 400v.

Anyone know more about this subject? Obviously Tesla could have made their packs 800v via the same tricks that GM is using (2x 400v packs in parallel), but chose not to.

Pros of 800v:
- Smaller wires, less amps

Cons of 800v:
- Wires aren't that expensive vs. TCO
- More dangerous
- Needs 800v components

Its just the same volts vs amps tradoffs that you have in all electrical systems, or am I missing something?

 

[MP3Mike]

The reason is that CCS2 is limited to 500A, so to get 350kW charging, or really anything over ~180kW you have to go higher voltage if you are using CCS.

 

[user212_nr]

The reason is that CCS2 is limited to 500A, so to get 350kW charging, or really anything over ~180kW you have to go higher voltage if you are using CCS.

It is a bit of a recursive definition, given that they chose to set the standard that way - just moves the question from GM/Porsche to CCS, why they chose 500A.

Now that CCS has been adopted, it is a good point that existing Tesla cars will be limited to 200kW at CCS chargers.

 

[Tiger]

See related discussion on dynamically switching charging voltage. If the battery can take it (4860 cells?), Tesla could do it. Otherwise you're probably just fragging the pack.