Lincoln Electric, the same folks known for melting metal with extreme prejudice, have decided to tackle something even more terrifying — running out of charge in an EV. Their new Velion 50kW DC Fast Charger is a self-contained, portable box of salvation designed to bring dead EVs back to life on the side of the road. Think of it as jumper cables for the electric age — except it’s about the size of a refrigerator and costs around $21,000.
Unlike your typical plug-in Level 2 charger, the Velion is a DC fast charger that can directly feed power into an EV’s battery, bypassing the onboard inverter for rapid range recovery. It’s a tool seemingly aimed at tow companies, roadside assistance fleets, and probably the one friend who insists on driving to 1% for fun. Plus, not everyone has the room to tote around a generator or powerstation to cushion that range anxiety.
And sure, this is where you start scrolling to the comments section to point out the great EV versus ICE dichotomy — because when a gas car runs dry, it’s a quick jerry can and a gallon later and you’re back on the road.
Portable power, no outlet required
Lincoln’s Velion isn’t meant for home garages, really. The unit features 50kW of DC output, adjustable voltages, and a CCS-1 or NACS connector. It’s engineered to provide fast, temporary charging in the field. Although Lincoln Electric doesn’t spell it out, you can pretty much guess where something like this ends up. Think tow trucks, utility fleets, or even construction sites. We’ve already seen Volvo’s electric work trucks quietly tearing down buildings, so it’s not a stretch to picture one of these Velions humming away in the corner, topping off a digger between shifts.
You might think Lincoln Electric is a strange name to be taking a crack at this sort of thing, but really, it’s kind of genius. The company’s been mastering the art of pixie wrangling for decades — helping skilled welders fuse two hunks of metal into one, with the kind of precision that makes sparks look poetic. Or, in my case, extremely unskilled — but hey, that’s what grinders are for.
The future of refueling the un-fueled
The implications of such a device for the regular motorist is frankly hilarious. Imagine instead of calling AAA for a gallon of gas, you’re calling for a mobile EV charger to give your lifeless chariot enough juice to limp to the nearest actual charging station — avoiding the ultimate indignity of having your electric car become a monument to poor planning on the roadside.
EV owners love to point out that electricity is cheaper than gas, but this is one case where that argument comes up short — both in convenience and finances. The Velion might not make financial sense for individuals, but as a professional tool, it fills a long-ignored gap. Yeah, the $21,000 sticker is steep, but what’s that compared to your dignity evaporating on the shoulder of I-95?
