Charged EVs | ABB’s new OM M-Series EV chargers: a distributed system that optimizes power delivery

A split is developing in the EVSE world. Industry experts have been telling us that distributed (or split) systems, in which a single power cabinet serves multiple dispensers, represent the wave of the future.

The latest news from splitsville comes from industry behemoth ABB, which has just introduced a new modular, air-cooled split system that “separates the generation from the dispensing of power.”

ABB’s new OM M-Series “enables charging systems to be configured around distinct mission profiles rather than deployed as generic hardware.”

ABB explains: “The M-Series connects centralized power cabinets to a portfolio of purpose-built dispensers: Solo, Duo, Dock and Ultra, supporting CCS1, CCS2, NACS and MCS. This separation enables charging infrastructure to serve distinct customer segments, each with different utilization patterns, dwell times and economic requirements.”

“The industry spent a decade optimizing for nameplate power. What operators need to optimize for now is the cost of energy delivered over the lifetime of a site,” said Michael Halbherr, CEO of ABB E-mobility. “Power only matters if it can be consistently delivered, across vehicle architectures, across charge points and across utilization levels. The M-Series is built to do that.”

The M-Series scales from 200 kW to 1.2 MW, and supports up to 24 charge points. Power capacity can be expanded in the field in 400 kW increments across up to three interconnected cabinets.

“Delivered power, not rated power, is the relevant metric,” ABB tells us. “Different EVs draw power differently, and conventional systems lose capacity in the handover. The M-Series keeps delivered power close to rated capacity, ensuring installed power is consistently utilized. The power delivery unit dynamically distributes capacity across all charge points and vehicle types in real time, matching output to demand patterns.”

The M-Series is built around three site typologies, each with different power requirements, utilization patterns and economic constraints:

• Public fast charging: Sites scale from a single 400 kW cabinet to 1.2 MW across up to 24 charge points in 400 kW increments.
• Retail and hospitality destinations: At supermarkets, fuel retailers and logistics hubs, the system dynamically balances between high-power charging at low utilization and lower-power parallel charging at higher site utilization, maximizing capacity use as demand fluctuates.
• Commercial fleet depots: Operators electrifying mixed van, truck and bus fleets make capital commitments under high uncertainty. The M-Series enables expansion in 400 kW increments, aligning infrastructure cost with actual fleet growth rather than projections. The system supports both high-power opportunity charging and lower-power overnight charging without requiring dedicated infrastructure for each use case.

The M-Series builds on the foundation of ABB’s all-in-one A-Series chargers. Both series are built on the same air-cooled, in-house-developed silicon carbide IP54 power electronics platform and a common reference architecture, commercially deployed since 2024.

Source: ABB