So essentially - They are better off just putting in 800v chargers everywhere as that is less load on the grid?
Sort of but not really, cost is also a consideration.
The USP of something like Kempower and is the AC-DC conversion happens centrally and that power can be shunted to what ever stall is asking for it.
That makes it significantly cheaper to deploy than installing standalone chargers that are controlled centrally.
Say you’ve got a 2mw connection to serve 12 bays. If you are using standalone chargers you are effectively buying enough power electronics to convert 4.8mw of AC to DC if you want them all to have 350kw capability.
Where as if you have a Kempower (or V3/4 Tesla) system, you buy 2mw of power cabinets and they can send the power to which ever stall is asking for it in X kw increments. I think it’s 30kw but don’t quote me on that. The stalls themselves are very cheap and just carry the cable, deal with payment and cable water cooling if it uses a water cooled cable.
It provides a far better customer experience than something like an old V2 Tesla or even something like a new 300kw Alpitronic Hypercharger which share power across 2 stalls only.
Taking the BP hub at the NEC which has 16 (?) 300kw Hyper chargers as an example. Let’s say you are the only car there. You have a nice shiny 800V EV6, you plug in and take all 300kw for yourself.
You walk over to Starbucks and 30 seconds later some muggle pulls in and because they can’t face parking alone, they park in the bay next to you and plug into the same unit. Now you charging speed is halved despite the massive capacity available at the site.
And yes, I’ve actually had this happen to me… it’s the same phenomenon as when you park at the back of the car park specifically to get away from other vehicles but when you come back you find you have spawned a new car either side of you despite there being 50 other empty spaces around you.
