As much as I love EVs, I’ll admit, even the best electric cars come with a few real-world inconveniences. Gone are the days of range anxiety, but my biggest gripe is waiting around in a motorway services car park watching your battery up. Even the fastest chargers still take upwards of 45 minutes for a full charge.
But BYD’s new charging tech promises to cram 250 miles of range into your EV in just 5 minutes. You could spend longer queuing for a lukewarm sausage roll in Wetherby services.
This new battery tech comes courtesy of BYD’s Super e Platform. It hits a peak power delivery of 1000kW – that’s a full megawatt. It’s around twice the power of the latest Tesla Supercharger, and around six times more powerful than your average service-station EV charger. It comes thanks to a new generation of silicon carbide chips (like some top new smartphones), a motor spinning at 30,000rpm, and a complete overhaul of its electrical system.
Of course, you won’t be able to plug an old Nissan Leaf into one of these chargers and expect miracles. For one thing, the cable would probably catch fire. No, this is strictly a kilovolt game. This charger would only work with EVs kitted out with 1000V architecture, batteries designed to keep cool, and the latest heat management.
BYD’s Han L and Tang L EVs in China are getting the full treatment first. They come with a new battery designed to slash internal resistance by 50%. While the EV-maker hasn’t confirmed it, I suspect these chargers will eventually work with other brand’s cars – just like Tesla Superchargers.
Doubling the power delivery and cutting internal resistance in half is basically the EV equivalent of going from dial-up to gigabit fibre. EV charging looks a lot less like a chore and a lot more like filling up at the petrol pump. I think it solves one of the biggest EV problems, and others will too. In fact, this could take a big step in encouraging more people to go electric.
However, drawing that much power is going to demand serious upgrades to the energy grid. But we’ll leave that headache for the ones in charge. BYD’s own models will come with support for the new ultra-fast charging setup starting in April. Expect the chargers to open soon after. And, hopefully, the next step is taking this tech worldwide.
