New fast-charging technology unveiled by Chinese EV maker BYD can increase a vehicle’s range by 400 kilometres (249 miles) after just five minutes of charging. Along with the announcement, BYD pledged to spend heavily in the infrastructure for charging, constructing more than 4,000 of the new fast chargers around China.
The “Super e-Platform” technology can charge at 1,000kW peak speeds, which is twice as fast as the Tesla V4 superchargers, which will peak at 500kW this year. The Han L sedan and Tang L SUV, which start at 270,000 yuan (about $37,330), are the first two new cars to be equipped with the faster charging technology.
“We have been pursuing a goal to make the charging time of electric vehicles as short as the refuelling time of petrol vehicles in order to completely solve our users’ charging anxiety,” BYD founder Wang Chuanfu stated during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. “This is the first time in the industry that the charging power unit has been reached in megawatts.”
Although it did not provide a timeline, BYD has also committed to utilising the new platform to construct more than 4,000 ultra-fast chargers around China. Considering that the majority of BYD owners in China depend on chargers made by other manufacturers to keep their vehicles charged, it is a noteworthy move, according to Reuters.
This is not the only attention-grabbing action taken by BYD. It introduced a roof-mounted drone launcher earlier this month that works with all of its vehicles and was created in partnership with DJI. It enables drones to take off and land at speeds of up to 25 km/h. With 1.76 million cars sold in 2024, the firm is catching up to Tesla, which sold 1.79 million. However, 90% of those sales were in China, and the company’s hybrid vehicles accounted for the majority of those sales.
