Porsche has big plans to expand the capability of the Combined Charging System (CCS) DC standard into much higher voltages to allow much  faster electric-car charging.

Now, it's completed a first step: at the brand's new branch office in Berlin-Adlershof, Porsche has installed a prototype 350-kilowatt, 800-volt charging station.

The new technology has the capability to charge an electric car's battery at speeds that simply can't be achieved using today's technology.

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Modern CCS charging stations in the U.S. are capped at 50 kw, but Porsche hopes to roll out the 350-kw stations by the end of the decade to coincide with its first electric car—a production version of the Mission E.

The prototype charging station receives power from the branch office's 25-meter (82 foot) high solar pylon, composed of 7,776 photovoltaic cells.

Porsche says the solar pylon has the ability to produce 30,000 kilowatt-hours per year; it covers the entire electricity demand of the new office as well as electric-car charging.

Porsche Mission E concept, 2015 Frankfurt Auto Show

Porsche Mission E concept, 2015 Frankfurt Auto Show

The prototype charging station features experimental liquid-cooling technology.

The charging cable itself is cooled to prevent overheating of the charging pins at the high electrical rates required to transfer up to 100 kilowatt-hours in a minimal amount of time, say 15 minutes.

Porsche's goal is to make recharging an electric car as convenient as filling up at a fuel station.

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The prototype is currently capable of recharging an electric car's battery to 80 percent capacity in about 15 minutes. Porsche notes that's half the elapsed time of current CCS fast-charging technology, for far more energy capacity.

However, the prototype technology comes at a price.

Porsche has said, "The requisite investments for charging stations are ... relatively high."

Porsche Mission E concept, 2015 Frankfurt Auto Show

Porsche Mission E concept, 2015 Frankfurt Auto Show

It plans to begin building up high-power charging stations in Europe by the end of this year, to expand the total CCS network greatly by 2020.

In the United States, VW Group was required to invest $2 billion over 10 years into fueling infrastructure for zero-emission vehicles as a condition of settling its long-running diesel emission cheating scandal.

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The CCS standard is used by all German and U.S. automakers save for Tesla, meaning that whatever improvements Porsche devises could be submitted to become an international standard.

Once adopted as a global standard, that would allow the benefits of the much faster fast charging to be shared by other electric-car owners besides those capable of affording the fast, sleek, but undoubtedly pricey Mission E.

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