Kempower has introduced a charging dispenser designed to serve both electric cars and heavy-duty trucks from a single unit, a move that addresses one of the more expensive problems in the buildout of high-power charging infrastructure. The new Mega Satellite Flex supports the established Combined Charging System (CCS) at up to 560 kW and the emerging Megawatt Charging System (MCS) at up to 1.2 MW, making it the company's first dispenser capable of switching between the two standards.
The timing reflects where the charging industry actually stands right now. CCS remains the dominant standard for passenger EVs across North America and Europe, while MCS is only beginning to take hold as electric trucks require far higher power levels to keep long-haul routes practical. Building separate sites for each standard is costly and often redundant, particularly for operators trying to serve mixed fleets or highway corridors where cars and trucks stop side by side. For fleet operators weighing infrastructure decisions, questions around network configuration are not unlike the ones individual users face when choosing a VPN setup - including the kind of tradeoffs explained in discussions about why a dedicated IP is sometimes worth it, where a dedicated resource can simplify management even if it costs more upfront.
One Site, Two Standards
Kempower's pitch is straightforward: instead of building a CCS station now and adding an MCS station later, operators can install one dispenser that handles both from day one. The Mega Satellite Flex delivers up to 700 amps for CCS and 1,500 amps for MCS, with cable lengths of 5 meters for CCS and 2.7 meters for MCS. It can also be fitted with a payment terminal, a detail that matters for public charging sites where card or contactless payment is often expected rather than optional.
The unit is also built to support 800-volt EV architectures, an increasingly common design in newer passenger and commercial vehicles that allows for faster charging without the thermal and current penalties of older 400-volt systems. That compatibility extends the dispenser's usefulness beyond trucks alone, positioning it as infrastructure that will not need replacing as vehicle electrical systems evolve over the coming years.
Why Utilization Matters for Operators
Charging infrastructure is a capital-intensive business, and idle equipment is the single biggest drag on returns. A dispenser that only serves one vehicle segment sits unused when the wrong type of vehicle pulls in. By serving both cars and trucks, Kempower argues that site owners can push utilization higher immediately, rather than waiting years for truck traffic to justify a dedicated MCS buildout. The Mega Satellite Flex is also designed to work with Kempower's existing distributed charging architecture, meaning operators already running Kempower systems can add the new dispenser without reworking their power cabinets or site design.
What Comes Next
Kempower revealed the Mega Satellite Flex at its Unplug & Recharge event held alongside ACT Expo, where the unit is on display this week. The company expects to bring it to market in North America and Europe in July 2026, giving operators roughly a year to plan sites around the new hardware. Whether MCS adoption accelerates quickly enough to justify dual-standard installations at scale remains an open question, but the underlying logic - building once instead of twice - is likely to shape how other manufacturers approach the same transition.