Status of megawatt charging system in Europe
Siddiqui, Aminul Haque (2026)
Diplomityö
2026
School of Energy Systems, Energiatekniikka
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe20260624102259
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe20260624102259
Tiivistelmä
Heavy-duty road transport is a large source of transport-related carbon dioxide emissions in the European Union. Battery-electric trucks are one of the technology options that are being deployed to reduce these emissions, but their use in long-haul operation is constrained by the available charging infrastructure. A long-haul tractor with a battery of 600 to 800 kWh cannot be recharged within the regulatory rest period of professional drivers using the Combined Charging System (CCS), which in public installations is currently limited to around 350 to 500 kW per port. The Megawatt Charging System (MCS) was developed by the Charging Interface Initiative to address this gap and delivers up to 3.75 MW at a single port.
This thesis reviews the current status of MCS in Europe. The study is a structured review and is based on peer-reviewed literature, industry white papers, international standards and the public disclosures of charging-point operators and truck manufacturers. The thesis examines the operational case for MCS, the technical specification of the system, the differences between MCS and CCS, and the deployment status as of April 2026.
The review finds that the minimum charging power calculated for a long-haul battery-electric truck to reach functional parity with a diesel truck under the EU driving-hours regulation is of the order of several hundred kilowatts; Schneider et al. (2023) report a single calculated value of 761 kW for a 40-tonne tractor under the VECTO long-haul cycle. The 3.75 MW upper limit of the standard provides capacity for multi-port operation, for vehicles with larger batteries and for the charging-curve tapering at high states of charge. The architecture of an MCS station differs from a scaled CCS station in the connector, the communication stack, the cable cooling and the medium-voltage grid connection, and an MCS station cannot be realised by retrofitting the existing CCS hardware. As of April 2026, the charging-point operator Milence operates 34 charging hubs across eight European countries, of which three are MCS-enabled. Milence has been awarded up to €111.5 million from the EU Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility to install 284 MCS charging points across 71 locations in ten, mainly by the lead time of medium-voltage grid connections, by the capital cost of the hardware and by the small number of MCS-capable trucks in service.
This thesis reviews the current status of MCS in Europe. The study is a structured review and is based on peer-reviewed literature, industry white papers, international standards and the public disclosures of charging-point operators and truck manufacturers. The thesis examines the operational case for MCS, the technical specification of the system, the differences between MCS and CCS, and the deployment status as of April 2026.
The review finds that the minimum charging power calculated for a long-haul battery-electric truck to reach functional parity with a diesel truck under the EU driving-hours regulation is of the order of several hundred kilowatts; Schneider et al. (2023) report a single calculated value of 761 kW for a 40-tonne tractor under the VECTO long-haul cycle. The 3.75 MW upper limit of the standard provides capacity for multi-port operation, for vehicles with larger batteries and for the charging-curve tapering at high states of charge. The architecture of an MCS station differs from a scaled CCS station in the connector, the communication stack, the cable cooling and the medium-voltage grid connection, and an MCS station cannot be realised by retrofitting the existing CCS hardware. As of April 2026, the charging-point operator Milence operates 34 charging hubs across eight European countries, of which three are MCS-enabled. Milence has been awarded up to €111.5 million from the EU Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility to install 284 MCS charging points across 71 locations in ten, mainly by the lead time of medium-voltage grid connections, by the capital cost of the hardware and by the small number of MCS-capable trucks in service.