It appears that Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD has solved the biggest problem with EV’s―charging time. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:
Less than two weeks after China’s BYD unveiled game-changing EV charging technology capable of delivering 1,000 kW fast charges and adding 250 miles of range in just five minutes, BloombergNEF analysts published a note Wednesday titled “Five Things to Know About BYD’s Five-Minute Charging.”
BloombergNEF EV analyst Ash Wang told clients that BYD’s 1,000 kW chargers are “as fast as filling a tank with gasoline at the pump, and could be a game changer for electric vehicle adoption.”
Wang outlined five of the most critical things to know about the fast-charging advancement:
1. BYD blew competition out of the water with 1,000 kilowatts charging
BYD’s newest Han L and Tang L electric vehicles will be capable of adding 250 miles of range in just five minutes. That’s twice as fast as the best fast-charging vehicles in the market today, such as the Xiaomi SU7 Max, which can do 220 km in five minutes, and the Lucid Air which can do 187 km in the same time (Figure 1).
The vehicles will be available from Spring 2025, starting at around 270,000 yuan ($37,320) and will have peak charging power of 1,000 kilowatts. This is four times more than that of Tesla’s Model Y and even twice that of the Tesla Cybertruck that announced peak charger power of 500 kW.
Charging power (kilowatts or kW) is determined by voltage and current. Having high voltage architecture — BYD has a 1,000-volt platform — enables faster charging.
At this price, these vehicles pose a big threat to other automakers. It may take some time for the vehicles to arrive in Europe and North America, though, giving those regions some breathing space.
The advancement could undermine the case for next generation solid-state batteries. Toyota’s plans to bring that technology in mass production by 2025 now look slightly irrelevant. Honda and Nissan have also been working on solid-state batteries. The case for battery swapping may also stand diluted. While NIO’s latest system changes a battery slightly faster — in three minutes — it requires extra capital for the spare batteries in the swapping systems.
