Huber+Suhner, the Swiss manufacturer of components for DC fast chargers, announced its upcoming new product, the Radox HPC NACS, aimed at North America.  This is a strategic move for that market, where the EV industry is switching from the Combined Charging System Combo 1 (CCS1) to the Tesla-developed North American Charging Standard (NACS) charging connector.

The company intends to expand its High Power Charging (HPC) product portfolio, which currently includes CCS1 and CCS2 plugs and liquid-cooled cables, to include the NACS version. As we can see, the new NACS plug’s design is different from Tesla’s original.

The prototypes of the Huber+Suhner Radox HPC NACS plug will be available for field testing and validation in Q1 2024, the company said in a statement, without revealing any specs.

What we do know is that Huber+Suhner is working on a liquid-cooled system, fully backward compatible with the installed base HPC500 CCS1 system, rated at up to 500 kilowatts (up to 500 amps at 1,000 volts).

This indicates that EV charger manufacturers and EV charging networks might be able to simply swap out the plugs on some of their existing chargers when switching to NACS.

The company says that Radox HPC NACS “is optimized for reduced installation time and reliability in the field, alongside a maintenance-free system and comprehensive serviceability options to guarantee extended service life.”

It will be very interesting to see whether the Huber+Suhner Radox HPC NACS will also be rated for up to 500 kilowatts or maybe more.

Stefan Buri, the Vice President and Market Manager for HPC at HUBER+SUHNER, said:

“With our entry into NACS, we are providing an innovative and future-proof solution for our customers. As more auto manufacturers adopt the NACS standard for the North American market, the backward compatibility of our NACS solution provides charging point operators (CPOs) with the flexibility they need while minimizing installation time and cost.”

Megawatt Charging System (MCS)

Separately, Huber+Suhner is also working on a solution for the Megawatt Charging System (MCS) for commercial vehicles. About five months ago, the company announced a successful field test of the Radox MCS1500 system.

This unit is designed to deliver continuous charging up to 2,250 kW or 2.25 MW (at up to 1,500 amps and 1,500 volts) for heavy-duty electric vehicles.

In the future, there will be an even more powerful version (currently under development) with an output of 4,500 kW (4.5 MW), which can sustain a current of 3,000 amps (at up to 1,500 volts).

A close-up view of the Huber+Suhner Radox MCS1500.