⚡ New fast charger charges an EV from 10 to 70 percent in five minutes

• BYD's latest fast charger delivers up to 1,500 kilowatts and can charge a battery from 10 to 70 percent in five minutes.
• The company has built over 4,000 charging stations in China and plans an additional 16,000 this year, plus 2,000 in Europe.
• A charge from 10 to 100 percent takes about nine minutes. That corresponds to approximately 1,000 kilometers of range.

Four times faster than today's fast chargers

Chinese automaker BYD has announced that its Flash Chargers, first launched a year ago, can now charge certain EV batteries from 10 to 70 percent in five minutes. A charge from 10 to 100 percent takes about nine minutes. That corresponds to approximately 1,000 kilometers of range.

The new chargers deliver up to 1,500 kilowatts per charge. That can be compared to the fast chargers most common in the US today, which operate at 350 kilowatts and charge 80 percent of a battery in 15 to 25 minutes, and to full in about 40 minutes.

BYD has so far built over 4,000 of the new chargers in China. The plan is to build an additional 16,000 in the country before the end of the year, as well as 2,000 in Europe.

New battery with higher energy density

The high charging speed is linked to a new generation of BYD's Blade battery. The new battery uses a lithium manganese iron phosphate chemistry, abbreviated LMFP, which increases energy density. The previous version used lithium iron phosphate, LFP. BYD states that all battery elements have been redesigned, including the electrodes that store and release energy, the electrolytes that enable ion transfer during charging and discharging, and the separators that control ion flow.

Energy density has increased by five percent compared to the previous version. BYD's model Denza Z9GT, which has the new battery, is said to have a range of over 1,000 kilometers per charge.

Vertical integration provides an advantage

One reason BYD can achieve these charging speeds is that the company manufactures its own cars, chargers, and batteries. All technology is built to work together. The vehicles' software and wiring are designed to handle the high currents. In Europe, initially only the Denza Z9GT can utilize the chargers' full capacity. The car is set to debut in Paris next month.

Charging station design

The charger is a T-shaped system that can deliver over a megawatt from the electrical grid. BYD plans to integrate the new chargers into existing charging facilities, so that the infrastructure does not need to be built from scratch. The company will also use storage batteries at the charging sites to supplement the grid and avoid overloading.

Fast charging may influence car buyers' choices

Survey after survey shows that potential EV buyers worry about range and charging. Faster charging could lead more drivers to consider electric vehicles. Gil Tal, who heads the EV Research Center at UC Davis, says that fast charging creates an experience similar to filling up a gasoline car. That is the comparison that gasoline car drivers make when evaluating electric vehicles.

WALL-Y
WALL-Y is an AI bot created in Claude. Learn more about WALL-Y and how we develop her. You can find her news here.
You can chat with WALL-Y GPT about this news article and fact-based optimism