MAN carries out a power performance test of a one-megawatt charge at sub-zero temperatures

The German heavy-duty truck and bus manufacturer MAN has just successfully carried out an interesting public demonstration of the performance of one-megawatt charging of one of its electric trucks in the Swedish town of Norrköping. This demonstration took place as part of the Kempower MCS Live Winter Days event.

The test was carried out at the facilities of Alfredsson Transport, one of the customers of the Finnish company Kempower, and served to check the performance of the Megawatt Charging System (MCS) under real conditions during the cold Swedish winter, with sub-zero temperatures.

During the session, a unit of MAN’s eTGX electric truck reached a charging power close to 750 kW, which allowed it to complete a battery recharge from 10 to 90 percent in around 30 minutes. In this way, the German manufacturer has demonstrated the reliability of the entire charging process even in adverse weather conditions with sub-zero temperatures. This last aspect is key for the mass adoption of this type of truck in the heavy goods transport sector to be truly viable.

The charging point used in this test was a unit of the Kempower Mega Satellite, equipped with an MCS connector cooled by liquid – which is the one that was used – alongside another conventional standard CCS connector. This system, presented by Kempower in 2024, supports currents of up to 1,500 amperes and can deliver up to 1.2 megawatts of power. On this occasion, however, 750 kW was not exceeded due to the current limitations of the batteries installed in MAN trucks.

An important step forward

It is important to point out, in any case, that the main objective of this demonstration was not only to reach these high charging powers, but fundamentally to validate the technical interoperability between the vehicle and the charging station. MAN stresses that this compatibility is essential to scale MCS technology industrially. The German manufacturer, headquartered in Munich, has been working for some time with various charging point suppliers to guarantee secure communication and stable performance, and this test under demanding climatic conditions has once again confirmed the maturity of the integrated hardware and software.

Currently, MAN’s eTGX and eTGS models, both with a gross vehicle weight of up to 44 tonnes, can already be ordered with the MCS option built in. Production of units equipped with the new ultra-fast charging standard will begin in the second quarter of 2026.