China’s BYD, the world’s No. 1 electric vehicle seller, is launching batteries and charging facilities that can charge electric vehicles as fast as internal combustion engine vehicle gas time.
According to Bloomberg News and BYD Weibo on the 18th, BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu announced at a presentation held at the headquarters of Shenzhen, China, the day before that he would launch a “super e-platform” that can travel 400 kilometers on a five-minute charge.
BYD said its new electric vehicle battery and charging system will provide 1,000V high voltage and 1,000 kW charging power to mass-produced cars for the first time in the world.
This is faster than Tesla Superchargers, which secure 275 kilometers of mileage on a 15-minute charge, and ahead of Mercedes Benz’ CLA electric vehicle sedan, which was unveiled last week, capable of driving 325 kilometers on a 10-minute charge.
“BYD’s goal is to shorten the charging time of electric vehicles as short as possible as the filling time of internal combustion engine vehicles,” said Chairman Wang Chuan-fu. “In terms of charging speed, it will achieve the same speed of oil and electricity.” BYD said it will sell vehicles with super e-platforms starting next month and install more than 4,000 ultra-speed charging stations across China.
Chairman Wang also stressed that it takes only two seconds (zero-back) to accelerate from a standstill to 100 km per hour.
BYD has started pre-orders for the first models to apply the platform, the “HanL” sedan and the “TangL” sport utility vehicle (SUV), for at least 270,000 yuan and 280,000 yuan, respectively.
According to U.S. media Axios, Matt Teske, founder of EV charging startup Chargeway, said that Tesla has fallen from a leader in EV batteries and charging technologies to a latecomer following the launch of BYD’s new platform.
However, Axios said detailed information about what kind of battery BYD used and the size of the battery has not yet been released.
EJ SONG
US ASIA JOURNAL
