A five-minute charge for an EV, virtually as quick as a gasoline fill-up, has long seemed a quixotic dream.
Now electric Don Quixotes can save critical time on their quests, at least in China. BYD’s “megawatt charging” is here. And the company’s 1,000-kilowatt fast chargers could eliminate perhaps the biggest consumer gripe over EVs: That they take too long to charge.
BYD, the automaker that has passed Tesla in global EV sales, demonstrated its record-setting tech in Beijing during the recent Shanghai auto show. The numbers are staggering: More than a kilometer of added driving range per second on the plug. 400 kilometers of fresh range (nearly 250 miles) in five minutes. Even by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s more-realistic estimates, that equates to about 270 kilometers (168 miles) of range in five minutes.
“Despite advancements in EV technology, ‘charging anxiety’ remains the biggest pain point affecting the user experience,” BYD chairman and president Wang Chuanfu said in a statement. “To fully address this, our goal is to make the charging time of electric vehicles as short as the refueling time for gasoline cars.”
BYD’s Fast Charging Versus Competitors
How does BYD’s lightning pace compare with other standards? In the latest Hyundai Ioniq5, I’ve added 270 kilometers in about 18 minutes. Tesla says its latest Model Y can manage that in 15 minutes. Lucid’s new Gravity SUV, the best of the bunch, can add 320 kilometers in 15 minutes, at a peak rate of 400 kilowatts.
In the Shanghai demonstration, a new BYD Han L sedan reached a brief charging peak of 1,002 kilowatts, before steadily tapering off to a “low” of 463 kilowatts. In just under five minutes, the Han L boosted its battery from 13 to 60 percent, and added 421 kilometers (262 miles) of range—about three times faster than the top EV-and-charger combos in the United States.
“If I can add 250 miles in five minutes, what does this mean for oil and gas?” says Tu Le, managing director of Sino Auto Insights. “And if China is the only country that’s going to support this, are the rest of us going to live in an analog world?”
The real game-changer, Le said, is that BYD—which is on pace to sell 5 million EVs and hybrids this year—has the cars, chargers, and batteries to bring these advances to the masses at affordable prices. Without all three, none of this works. And none of that would be possible without being a vertically integrated company at massive scale. That includes an entire “kilovolt manufacturing chain” to develop and build every necessary component.
“This is where BYD is uniquely positioned,” Le says. “No other company has that much engineering control over what might seem to be disparate elements, by designing their own cars, chargers, and batteries.”
BYD claims its Blade battery’s 1,000A current and 10C charging rate are global records for the EV industry.BYD
In March, BYD debuted its “Super e-Platform” that underpins the Han L sedan and Tang L SUV. The world’s first 1,000-volt car platform tops the Lucid’s 926 volts, the 800 volts of Hyundai, Porsche and other brands, or Tesla’s puny 400 volts. To match the charging speeds, the platform integrates the industry’s first mass-produced, 1,500-volt silicon-carbide chips. A powerful, 30,000-rpm electric motor can generate up to 580 kilowatts (778 horsepower). That’s enough to scoot the new BYDs from 0-100 kph (62 mph) in about 2.7 seconds. And while the Han L would surely cost more in Western countries, the sedan starts at roughly 210,000 yuan in China, or about US $29,000. The Tang L sells for the equivalent of about $40,000.
BYD’s next advance is a Flash Charging Battery, a variant of its current Blade batteries. Its lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry trades some power density for safety, durability and unbeatable charging speeds. The company claims its 1,000 ampere current and 10-C charging rate are global records for any EV battery. (A 1-C battery refers to one that can charge or discharge in one hour; a 10-C battery can do the trick in six minutes.) BYD reduced the battery’s internal resistance by 50 percent, redesigning electrolytes, separators and electrodes for “ultra-fast ion channels.” Their latest refrigerant cooling system helps deliver a 35 percent gain in high-temperature lifespan, ensuring that megawatt charging won’t degrade the battery.
Finally, there’s the BYD Megawatt charger itself, whose maximum 1,360 kW output whips the 500 kilowatts of Lucid’s new “Charging Hub” in New York City. The units feature built-in energy storage to reserve juice for when the grid can’t supply it, or for use in China’s rural areas.
The company designed its plug handles, or “guns,” to be less bulky than the CCS units found in the U.S. and Europe, if not quite as svelte as Tesla’s Supercharger plugs. But BYD’s quick-draw routine can extend to a pair of pistols: When a Megawatt charger isn’t available, the Han L and Tang L can plug into two fast chargers at once to maximize refill speeds, using DC ports on either side of the car. Pull up to a 250 kW charger with two plug outlets, and these Chinese models can charge at about 500 kW, or 360 KW on a pair of 180 KW units. Several Western models offer dual charging ports, but they’re exclusively DC on one side and AC on the other. BYD is the first to let users double their charging pace; no word on how Chinese EV owners might react to seeing one car hogging a pair of public outlets.
As Le notes, that speed is a watchword for China’s entire EV ecosystem. While the U.S. dithers—or seeks to kill incentives that encouraged consumers to buy EVs and automakers to build factories—China continues to innovate through a ruthless blend of competition and government support. Just two months after announcing its kilovolt platform, BYD has already built 500 Megachargers, though only at its dealerships for now, with plans for 4,000 chargers.
“The system is ready and the cars are affordable, from day one,” Le says.
That country’s arms race in fast charging is already sparking one-upmanship. Since BYD’s big move, Huawei—the smartphone giant now stepping into the automotive industry—and the Geely Group’s Zeekr brand have announced their own chargers that promise speeds of up to 1,500 kilowatts. And Le responded to industry critics who have described these systems as overkill.
“Maybe so,” Le said. “But that’s the nature of the Chinese market: You have to outdo your competitor, or you’ll be left behind.”
