Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer BYD has revealed new fast-charging tech that can add 400km (249 miles) of range from a five minute charge. With the announcement, BYD has also promised to make a major investment in charging infrastructure, building over 4,000 of the new fast chargers across China.
The “Super e-Platform” tech is capable of charging at peak speeds of 1,000kW, double the fastest Tesla V4 superchargers, which will peak at 500kW when they roll out this year. The faster charging tech is initially available in two new vehicles, the Han L sedan and Tang L SUV, which start at 270,000 yuan (around $37,330).
“In order to completely solve our users’ charging anxiety, we have been pursuing a goal to make the charging time of electric vehicles as short as the refuelling time of petrol vehicles,” BYD founder Wang Chuanfu said from a Shenzhen launch event. “This is the first time in the industry that the unit of megawatt has been achieved on charging power.”
10C* charging isn’t all that exceptional
But also charging a Tesla on a road trip takes ~15 minutes each couple of hundred kilometres, that’s often not enough time to get a coffee and use a toilet; it’s never long enough to get a meal.
On a thousand kilometre trip recently for a lunch break my partner would find a place to get lunch and order for themself and me while I waited in the car for it to become charged enough. I would generally get to the lunch place before food was served
Faster isn’t much use until it’s fast like filling a petrol tank
*10 times capacity – Charging rate 10 times faster in kilowatts than the battery capacity in kilowatt-hours