Chinese automaker BYD has announced an ultra-fast EV charging system that it says can deliver a full charge to its latest EV models within five to eight minutes, similar to the amount of time needed to fill a fuel tank with gas.
The company says its one-megawatt flash chargers can provide enough energy for nearly 250 miles of driving in five minutes. It plans to build more than 4,000 of the new charging stations across China.
BYD’s new flash-charging system relies on in-house-developed silicon carbide power chips that can handle voltage levels of up to 1,500 V.
Naturally, a super-high-voltage connection is required to achieve the advertised charging speeds, BYD’s founder Wang Chuanfu explained. “To completely solve users’ anxiety over charging, our pursuit is to make the charging time for EVs as short as the refueling time for fuel vehicles,” Wang said.
BYD offers a full spectrum of plug-in cars and SUVs, from the $9,700 Seagull to the $223,000 Yangwang U9 supercar. China-watcher Michael Dunne has called BYD’s Blade lithium-iron phosphate battery “arguably the world’s safest and most efficient battery.”
BYD recently began pre-sales of its next-generation Han L and Tang L models. BYD reported production of some 4.3 million new energy vehicles in 2024, up 41% from the previous year earlier, including 1.8 million battery-electric vehicles and 2.5 million plug-in hybrids.
Source: Associated Press
