In honor of Back to the Future day, the clever folks at Porsche have put out a video celebrating their serendipitous discovery that at some point around now, a real-life 1.21 gigawatts of fast-charging capability has been achieved. Good news for EV drivers, Porsche Taycan owners among them—a group that has grown by almost 30,000 already this year.
"We knew the fast charging network for the car—both in Europe and the US—was expanding rapidly," said a Porsche spokesperson, "meaning it's becoming more efficient and convenient, in turn allowing our customers to spend less time charging and more time traveling."
Porsche says it wondered how much the total output had grown, so it took a closer look at exactly how much power is available within the fast-charging networks across Europe and the United States. "We did the math, figured how much power is contained within the network and predicted, at the rate of expansion, we were about to reach 1.21 gigawatts of power in mid-October—coincidentally around the time of Back to the Future day," said the spokesperson.
Between the 670 stations built to date by Electrify America, a company established by the Volkswagen Group of America; 372 stations in the European-based Ionity charging network, of which Porsche is a co-owner; and various other publicly available fast-charging networks, Porsche says 1.21 gigawatts of combined power has been officially exceeded for the first time. "All of which means that the network contains more power than ever before, and charging your Taycan is quicker and easier," the automaker conveniently adds.
"In just 22 minutes, the Taycan can charge from 5% to 80%, thanks to its 800-volt battery architecture and 270 kW charge speed—meaning less time spent charging and more time traveling."
So in honor of the prestigious day—and, of course, to tout the ease of charging its Taycan EV—the automaker put together the cute little video above. Meantime, a reminder of the real significance of the achievement itself:
