Chinese electric truck claims record 500 kWh charge on route from Melbourne to Sydney

Newly emerging Chinese electric truck maker Windrose set an Australian public fast charging record of over 500 kilowatt-hours when it charged its flagship heavy-duty electric truck’s massive batteries on the road from Melbourne to Sydney.

The Windrose electric truck is equipped with a 729 kWh battery and at first glance looks like a Tesla Semi with streamlined features and a driver’s seat located in the middle of the cabin. The company claims a range of more than 670 km with a full load of up to 49 tons and hopes to begin commercial production next year.

The truck appeared at the All Energy show in Melbourne last week and was then taken out to showcase its products to some of Australia’s major logistics companies. They then traveled along the Hume Highway to Sydney on Sunday for another series of demonstrations.

The company has a special permit to operate on Australian roads and has signed an agreement with Mondo, a subsidiary of networking company Ausnet, to develop charging infrastructure in Australia.

Charles Yu, Windrose’s head of strategic partnerships, said in a LinkedIn post that the 501kWh charging session at the Evie Networks charging station at Sutton Forrest in New South Wales was likely an Australian record.

This is certainly true, given that no other electric vehicle has such a large battery (except maybe some large electric haulers – over 250 tonnes – being tested in the Pilbara iron ore mines). The previous Evie Network charger record was 220 kW, Yu said.

A photo posted by Yu showed that it took 2.5 hours to charge the battery to 97 percent, suggesting a reasonable charging speed of 100 kW. Some charging stations claim faster charging speeds, but often don’t achieve these numbers due to network or battery limitations.

“As we drove from Melbourne to Sydney, we had great interests,” he said. “People chased us to see the truck… and crowded us at charging stations. It was fantastic!

Wen Han, founder and CEO of Windrose, said last week that the truck is equipped with an 800V dual-input high-voltage charging platform capable of charging at megawatt levels, and has tested more than 120 public chargers, including CCS1 in the US and CCS2. in Europe, as well as MCS and GB/T in China.

Yu told The Driven that the truck didn’t need to charge during the trip because it wasn’t pulling a load, but he did it to test compatibility with local charging. He also tested the Chargefox website. The company hopes to complete homologation in the US, Europe and Australia by the end of next year, which will allow it to then sell the cars to customers.

Gavin Lewis, Mondo’s head of new energy markets, said in a statement last week that the two companies would work to develop suitable charging stations.

“Australian commercial transport and logistics operators are joint customers of Windrose and Mondo. We believe we will create real and sustainable value by working together to engage the market,” he said.

Yu says the company is planning several long-haul trips, including from Sydney to Brisbane next week, as well as a trip from Sydney to Canberra and back – fully loaded – without needing to recharge, to demonstrate its range capabilities. The truck will beat diesel trucks in total cost of ownership, he said.