BYD on Monday unveiled a new platform for electric vehicles (EVs) that it said could charge EVs as quickly as it takes to pump gas and announced for the first time that it would build a charging network across China.
The so-called “super e-platform” will be capable of peak charging speeds of 1,000 kilowatts (kW), enabling cars that use it to travel 400 km (249 miles) on a 5-minute charge, founder Wang Chuanfu said at an event livestreamed from the company’s Shenzhen headquarters.
Charging speeds of 1,000 kW would be twice as fast as Tesla’s superchargers whose latest version offers up to 500 kw charging speeds. Fast-charging technology has been key to increasing EV adoption as it is seen to help assure EV drivers’ concerns over being able to charge their cars quickly.
“In order to completely solve our user’s 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,” Wang said.
“This is the first time in the industry that the unit of megawatt (charge) has been achieved on charging power,” he said.
The new charging architecture will be initially available in two new EVs – Han L sedan and Tang L SUV priced from 270,000 yuan ($37,328.91) and BYD said it would build over 4,000 ultra-fast charging piles, or units, across China to match the new platform.
The company didn’t specify the time frame or how much it would invest in building such facilities. To date, BYD owners have largely relied on other automakers’ charging facilities or public charging poles run by third-party operators to charge their vehicles.
Tesla has offered its superchargers in China since 2014 and BYD’s smaller Chinese peers such as Nio, Li Auto, Xpeng and Zeekr have also been investing extensively and building charging facilities for years.
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They got that right.
My gut was telling me that Elon was doing in Tesla when joining up with Trump. Stupid @#$%.
Ten years ago Chinese journalist Chai Jing made an excellent documentary about the air pollution in China.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWAJWwjxa-mNeiTvOQulxxSJ8-rb33Uq_
Switching to EVs and replacing the dirtiest coal plants have improved air quality a lot since then, but one aspect that proved the most difficult was the overnight pollution from very dirty diesel trucks moving goods into the cities. BYD and other makers of heavy duty electric trucks are now starting to make inroads.
That’s heartening, but it will take a while to flush out the heavy duty combustion vehicles from the long tail of the used truck market.