BYD’s Superfast Charger is an EV Breakthrough

You can do a lot in five minutes — make a phone call, do some stretching, brush your teeth. Until now, charging an EV most definitely was not one of the possibilities. 

Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD, however, says that its latest and greatest charging platform renders that situation obsolete. Its ability to fully juice up BYD batteries in five minutes means EVs can now refuel in about as much time as a typical stop at a gas station — further widening China’s lead over American competitors. And all while the Trump 2.0 administration moves to pause government spending on EV-charging infrastructure, no less.

System Shock

According to BYD, the charging platform — dubbed Super e-Platform — will be able to reach a peak charging speed of 1,000 kilowatts, which means its latest cars can achieve a charge carrying 249 miles worth of juice in about five minutes. That’s compared with Tesla’s latest and greatest superchargers, which the automaker says can deliver a peak charging speed of 500 kilowatts for a roughly 15-minute charging time and around 167 miles worth of juice. Mercedes-Benz, meanwhile, announced last week that its latest EVs can achieve around a 200-mile range in around 10 minutes of charging.

Still, achieving those charging speeds in the US remains quite rare. According to the Department of Transportation, it takes anywhere from four to 10 hours for the average EV to achieve a full-charge using typical “Level 2” chargers (mostly used in homes), while publicly available direct-current fast-chargers take just under an hour to deliver an 80% charge. 

And, of course, charging speed is only half the battle. When it comes to charging infrastructure, China continues to maintain a sizeable lead:

• As part of its announcement, BYD said it would install 4,000 ultra-fast charging stations across China. As of July of last year, China had around 3.2 million public charging ports, compared with just 900,000 in Europe, and a measly 181,000 in the US, according to most estimates.
• “The ultimate solution is to make charging as quick as refueling a gasoline car,” BYD chairman and president Wang Chuanfu said at the platform’s launch event this week.

Slow Rider: Recent sales pitch on the White House lawn aside, Trump 2.0 seems to be going out of its way to slow domestic EV firms. Last month, the Federal Highway Administration (FWHA) put a pause on some $3 billion in funding earmarked for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program to build out EV charging infrastructure. A program that, to be clear, has proven remarkably slow in building out EV charging infrastructure. Launched as part of the 2021 bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the program to date has installed just 56 charging stations and has awarded just 900 contracts for future stations, according to NPR. Suffice to say: The US feels no need for EV speed.