MACBETH project publishes CharIN-led specification for multipoint MCS truck charging hubs

The EU-funded MACBETH project has published a specification for multipoint Megawatt Charging System (MCS) hubs for electric trucks. The Charging Interface Initiative (CharIN) led the work and authored the document with VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.

The document, Deliverable D4.1, is a shared reference framework for site layouts, power architectures and technical requirements that will guide the project’s pilots in Belgium and Sweden. VTT coordinates MACBETH, a Horizon Europe project that ends in January 2029.

D4.1 describes two reference site layouts. In a drive-through design, trucks enter, charge and leave in a forward-only flow without reversing. The second layout adds a dedicated waiting area, a buffer zone where vehicles queue until a charger is free, and is designed to improve traffic management at high utilization.

In a shared power cabinet concept, one central conversion system distributes power dynamically across several charge points based on vehicle demand, priorities and grid limits. A modular multi-cabinet concept instead grows capacity by adding independent cabinets, and is designed to offer redundancy and step-by-step scalability for smaller or early-stage sites.

Vehicle-to-charger communication is based on ISO 15118-20 with its MCS profile, using a 10BASE-T1S physical layer. The security baseline is mutual EV-EVSE authentication and TLS 1.3. The specification also includes a charger uptime target above 97%, heating for winter conditions and cooling to sustain megawatt power. Site energy management can throttle charger output during power peaks.

D4.1 maps the hub concepts against more than 40 ISO, IEC and EN standards and identifies four areas that existing standards do not yet fully address. These are power sharing and arbitration between simultaneous MCS sessions, automated and robotic MCS connections, guidance for mixed CCS and MCS sites, and site-level effects such as cumulative noise and waste heat.

“Through MACBETH, we are combining research and industry expertise complemented by CharIN’s standardization leadership to ensure that Megawatt Charging can be deployed at scale across Europe and deliver real value for electric heavy-duty transport,” said Yancho Todorov, Senior Scientist at VTT and Coordinator of the MACBETH project.

Source: CharIN