Lotus to challenge Tesla's Superchargers in Europe with its own 450kW chargers

Lotus unveiled its new powerful 450kW chargers and announced its plans to install the charging stations in the UK and broader Europe starting from Q2 2024. Some chargers are already up and running in China, though. These chargers are designed primarily for charge points, fleet providers and dealerships. They are not suitable for home use.

Lotus says that it won't be locking the chargers to just Lotus owners, they will work with all car brands, but the charging stations will be most effective with cars based on an 800V platform. In this case, you can expect about 80 miles of autonomy in return for just 5 minutes of charging. That's really impressive as even in the best case Tesla's Superchargers add 75 miles to your journey in the same time. Moreover, Lotus' chargers can charge your car from 10% to 80% in just 20 minutes.

To allow for such impressive charging speeds, the tech runs a coolant through the charging connector to reduce the heat and keep up with the charging demand. Lotus believes this is a future-proof technology and allows charging four cars at the same station. Fast charging on currently existing chargers is usually limited to just two cars.

Lotus is sticking to its "Vision80" plan to become one of the dominant EV players on the market by 2028, just in time for the company's 80th anniversary. It believes these chargers will be a great addition to the European charging infrastructure and will boost EV sales as a whole. About 80% of the reluctant buyers in the UK say the number one reason for not buying an EV is the poor charging infrastructure in the country.

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