Chinese car firm BYD has announced that its newest ultra-fast charger can refresh electric vehicle batteries in nearly the time it takes to fill a petrol tank. While this is good news for electric car owners in China, the chargers are unlikely to be available internationally in the immediate future.
BYD, the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer, says its new charger – known as the – can deliver up to 1000 kilowatts of charging power, restoring up to a 400-kilometre range to a battery within 5 minutes. By comparison, fast charging stations in the US and UK, such as Tesla superchargers, typically top out at around 350 or 400 kilowatts, taking 15 minutes to add roughly 300 kilometres of range.
“Public charging is a significant pain point holding back electric vehicle sales – and one consumer frustration is that even fast charging isn’t nearly as fast as filling up with gasoline,” says at Harvard University. “Thousand-kilowatt chargers have the potential to change that.”
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Ultra-fast charging technology could have a notable impact in China, which is the world’s largest automotive market and has the largest number of electric vehicles. Unlike most US and UK electric vehicle owners, who have the option to , China’s urban populations have relatively limited home charging access. Instead, they rely more heavily on extensive public .
But not every electric car will be able to take advantage of ultra-fast charging stations, says at the University of California, Davis. Electric vehicles would need to have the appropriate battery chemistry and plug-in connector compatibility to accept the stations’ maximum charging speeds, he says. BYD didn’t respond to a request for comment on which electric vehicle models could make the most of its ultra-fast chargers.
No battery charger can deliver top charging power and speeds all the time, says Tal, because charging stations usually only achieve peak power and maximum charging speeds for a very short time – often just seconds. And the charging process will typically slow down as an electric vehicle battery gets more fully recharged.
Ultra-fast chargers also require more power, which means they need much larger physical cables and liquid cooling to prevent overheating, says Tal. Widely deploying such power-hungry chargers along major roads would require utility companies to install more power transformers and substations, says Buckberg.
BYD said it plans to eventually install 4000 such stations in China, but it hasn’t commented on the possibility of international installations. Meanwhile, the US government under President Donald Trump has suspended a $5 billion federal programme intended to fund state efforts to install half a million high-speed chargers by 2030.
Beyond the convenience factor for drivers, ultra-fast chargers could also enable charging stations to service more electric vehicles more quickly with the same amount of available power, says Tal. But he says BYD’s technology most likely represents the extreme upper limit of fast charging options in the future. Tal also points out that many drivers will accept a half-hour charging process, for instance, if they spend that time shopping at a local wholesale or grocery store.
“In the future, we will see a more sophisticated market and you will be able to pay more for very fast charging or pay less for a little bit slower,” he says.
