China EV Company Makes Extraordinary Claim About Five-Minute Battery Charging

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Home charging of an EV can take four hours. Most public chargers offer an 80% battery charge in 15 minutes. One colossal hurdle that EVs face is that people can fill the tank of a gas-powered car in 10 minutes or so.

China EV marker BYD says it has made an extraordinary step forward. It can charge the battery in one of its models in five minutes. If so, it would completely transform the EV industry. The charge will give this car a range of 250 miles, which is about the industry standard.

New Step Forward For Industry

According to The Wall Street Journal, “The Shenzhen-based automaker touted its system, dubbed “Super E-Platform,” as being able to charge its latest models in just five minutes, allowing them to go 250 miles. To support the new technology, BYD plans to build 4,000 ultra-fast charging stations across China.”

While there are several other challenges to selling EVs, charging time is near the top of the list. Other challenges are range, price, and tire wear. However, fast charging makes the range less important. The BYD product matches a critical time-saving feature of gas-powered engines.

Gas Powered Car Challenge

BYD competitors face a major challenge: How can they reduce their charging times? Tesla’s network of thousands of chargers would have to be adapted, as would almost certainly the composition of its batteries. Legacy car companies pushing into the EV sector would face similar challenges.

US and foreign car companies that sell EVs in America can count themselves lucky. BYD and other Chinese EV companies are essentially locked out of America by 100% tariffs. Chinese-made EVs also often have retail price points well below those in the US.