BYD unveils ultra-fast EV charger, adding 250 miles of range in just 5 minutes

[Daniel Sims]

Why it matters: Long charging times remain among the most significant drawbacks of electric vehicles compared to gas-powered cars. However, Chinese EV giant BYD claims it has nearly eliminated the gap between electric charging and gasoline refueling speeds. Unfortunately, the benefits will initially be available only in China, as BYD's vehicles face steep tariffs in Western countries.

Electric car maker BYD recently unveiled a charging system it claims can recharge EVs more than three times faster than Tesla's popular Superchargers. BYD's "Super e Platform" reportedly charges vehicles almost as quickly as gasoline pumps fill tanks, potentially addressing a major drawback of electric vehicle ownership.

Electric cars have grown in popularity partly due to their reduced environmental impact compared to traditional vehicles. However, EV battery technology remains a significant challenge, with new charging methods and alternative battery types still being intensively researched.

Currently, recharging an EV can take over half an hour. Tesla advertises that its Superchargers can provide up to 200 miles of range in approximately 15 minutes, though users sometimes resort to applying damp cloths to maintain charging rates of up to 120kW.

BYD claims its new flash charging platform significantly surpasses Tesla, delivering approximately 250 miles of range in just five minutes, or fully charging a vehicle in under eight minutes at rates reaching one megawatt (1,000kW). A promotional video from BYD demonstrated a car gaining around 12.5 miles of charge within 10 seconds. Tesla's stock price slumped by around 5% following the announcement.

The Super e Platform will debut with BYD's new flagship Han L and Tang L models, which are currently available for pre-order in China. The company has announced plans to construct over 4,000 flash charging stations across China but has not provided a timeline. It remains unclear when or if BYD's megawatt charging technology will become available outside China, especially given existing regulatory hurdles abroad.

BYD is widely recognized for its competitively priced EVs, benefiting greatly from Chinese government subsidies. However, the European Commission recently imposed tariffs on BYD and other Chinese automakers, potentially raising prices by up to 50 percent. The US had announced tariffs of 100 percent on these vehicles, although details on these duties have since disappeared from official government websites, leaving their status uncertain under the current administration.

Meanwhile, Tesla's sales increased slightly in the UK and US last month despite waning popularity in continental Europe and Australia. While increased competition and anticipation of Tesla's upcoming Model Y may have influenced sales, CEO Elon Musk's association with President Trump and his role as the head of DOGE might be significant factors.

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BYD unveils ultra-fast EV charger, adding 250 miles of range in just 5 minutes

 

[mbk34]

Thank god you guys have introduced tariffs on Chinese EVs. Knowing america, if anyone tried to use max charge on one of these vehicles then they'd probably cause a brown out across their state.

Seriously though, do you need to charge at that rate? Most EV owners just plug in over night and wake up to a full "tank". Fully charging an EV at home overnight costs just a few dollars. If you do need to drive long distance then I need to have a break ever few 100 miles anyway. Super fast recharging is an interesting feature but it's not something I think I'd ever need.

 

[Kirby1]

Seriously though, do you need to charge at that rate?

Are you for real? I guess you have never driven a long distance.

In China, no one cares about Musk's antics, and they are perfectly happy to buy Teslas, yet Tesla sales in China are doing absolutely awful. The simple reason is that BYD's offerings are far superior. BYD offers self-driving with updates for free, Tesla does not. Tesla tried to get self-driving out in China after BYD did and it failed miserably. Tesla is just not competitive and at this point I honestly think the company will fail eventually. Their finances are completely upside down and investors are only beginning to realize Elon has been misleading them, or selling an outlook based on hope and wishful thinking instead of reality.

It would be great if there were a company like BYD in the US, but since we are well behind in EVs now, it would be nice to not to have to pay a Trump Tax to get quality products.

As long as I'm ranting about Tesla, their cars don't even use lidar, they just use regular cameras. Lidars can see everything around it clearly no matter if it's day or night, rain or fog. Tesla is trying to use regular cameras and then brute force self-driving, essentially as an AI powered post process image recognition system. It's an absolutely terrible idea that has not worked and never will work, which is why no one else is doing it.

 

[hahahanoobs]

Thank god you guys have introduced tariffs on Chinese EVs. Knowing america, if anyone tried to use max charge on one of these vehicles then they'd probably cause a brown out across their state.

Seriously though, do you need to charge at that rate? Most EV owners just plug in over night and wake up to a full "tank". Fully charging an EV at home overnight costs just a few dollars. If you do need to drive long distance then I need to have a break ever few 100 miles anyway. Super fast recharging is an interesting feature but it's not something I think I'd ever need.

You know this is a tech site, right?

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I'm guessing this is done with much higher voltages? I cant imagine pushing 1000kw using 400v architectures. Even 800v batteries struggle to maintain 300kw. Heat at this speed is no joke.

Thank god you guys have introduced tariffs on Chinese EVs. Knowing america, if anyone tried to use max charge on one of these vehicles then they'd probably cause a brown out across their state.

Seriously though, do you need to charge at that rate? Most EV owners just plug in over night and wake up to a full "tank". Fully charging an EV at home overnight costs just a few dollars. If you do need to drive long distance then I need to have a break ever few 100 miles anyway. Super fast recharging is an interesting feature but it's not something I think I'd ever need.

Charging tech this fast would be so close to gas fill up times that it would completely solve one of the three big EV problems, that being charge speed, range, and battery maintenance. Charging speeds that fast also mean it's less necessary to have 600+ mile range batteries for long distance, making current EV range more practical.

People used to say the same thing about phones. "who needs faster charging, I can just plug it in overnight". How many people do you know that still use those dinky 5w chargers? EVERY phone has fast charging, even cheap low end phones like the moto g support 15w charging.

Of course, the actual logistics of supporting such chargers are an entirely different animal. Getting even a couple MW of charging power for a freight facility is enough to make most electric utilities recoil in disgust.

 

[psycros]

If its Chinese, you can bet its BS.

 

[Megalomaniac]

Meanwhile...in America...liberal anarchists and arsonists are literally setting fire to Tesla dealerships, threatening Tesla owners, keying their cars (unbeknowingly being recorded doing so ) and driving up insurance rates for all of us whether you have an EV or not.

I lived in China as a student in Fu Dan University. The PRC government would never allow the level of lawlessness we currently have. The punishments for those who are destroying public property would be legendary.

It's no wonder Chinese enjoy clean streets, self driving cars and technology putting ours to shame.

EV proliferation isn't just about "cars". It's about building the future infrastructure of developing nations - and China's at the head of it. America is busy laying off federal workers while it drowns in debt - desperately trying to start proxy wars - and then losing them.

 

[The Talking Tech]

Thank god you guys have introduced tariffs on Chinese EVs. Knowing america, if anyone tried to use max charge on one of these vehicles then they'd probably cause a brown out across their state.

Seriously though, do you need to charge at that rate? Most EV owners just plug in over night and wake up to a full "tank". Fully charging an EV at home overnight costs just a few dollars. If you do need to drive long distance then I need to have a break ever few 100 miles anyway. Super fast recharging is an interesting feature but it's not something I think I'd ever need.

Imagine taking over 30 minutes to put a quarter of tank of gas in a vehicle.....that's how terrible most EVs are, that's the reason most people don't want to buy an EV...and yet you ask the ignorant question "Do people really need to charge a car at that rate?"

That question is as ignorant as it is puzzling.

 

[Kirby1]

Meanwhile...in America...liberal anarchists and arsonists are literally setting fire to Tesla dealerships, threatening Tesla owners, keying their cars (unbeknowingly being recorded doing so ) and driving up insurance rates for all of us whether you have an EV or not.

I lived in China as a student in Fu Dan University. The PRC government would never allow the level of lawlessness we currently have. The punishments for those who are destroying public property would be legendary.

It's no wonder Chinese enjoy clean streets, self driving cars and technology putting ours to shame.

EV proliferation isn't just about "cars". It's about building the future infrastructure of developing nations - and China's at the head of it. America is busy laying off federal workers while it drowns in debt - desperately trying to start proxy wars - and then losing them.

If China had someone like Musk trying to take apart government safety regulation agencies that oversee things like car safety and self driving reliability, the Chinese government would kill him and save everyone a lot of headaches.

Also kind of ironic to think that taking apart safety standards would help his company. I mean, does anyone want to buy a car from a guy trying to get around safety standards?

 

[m4a4]

Good for them?

The only reason why such tech isn't being pushed here in the west is because the general infrastructure sucks and it isn't worth the extra cost to implement it into a car that will probably never have the chance to use it.

Imagine trying to charge a few at a time at that rate (like you would have ICE vehicles fill up fast at a gas station)

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Seriously though, do you need to charge at that rate? Most EV owners just plug in over night and wake up to a full "tank". Fully charging an EV at home overnight costs just a few dollars. If you do need to drive long distance then I need to have a break ever few 100 miles anyway. Super fast recharging is an interesting feature but it's not something I think I'd ever need.

I take road trips in the 600-ish mile range once or twice a month. I stop every 120-150 miles to take a break, so Tesla's 120KW would probably be fast enough if one could count on one being everywhere you need it. Which you can't. Which is why EVs are great as a city car, but terrible for travel.

But 1000KW is a crazy amount of power. Seems like it's just asking for something to go wrong at that level.

 

[kiwigraeme]

Considering Trump govt removing EV chargers on govt facilities , backing out on infrastructure

Assume this with be mainly in big towns , and main interstates - Since don't need underground
tanks, I suppose some what easier to bang next to McDonalds

Cost to install at home would be crazy

 

[maxxcool7421]

God elons cars are junk ...

 

[sreams]

Are you for real? I guess you have never driven a long distance.

In China, no one cares about Musk's antics, and they are perfectly happy to buy Teslas, yet Tesla sales in China are doing absolutely awful. The simple reason is that BYD's offerings are far superior. BYD offers self-driving with updates for free, Tesla does not. Tesla tried to get self-driving out in China after BYD did and it failed miserably. Tesla is just not competitive and at this point I honestly think the company will fail eventually. Their finances are completely upside down and investors are only beginning to realize Elon has been misleading them, or selling an outlook based on hope and wishful thinking instead of reality.

It would be great if there were a company like BYD in the US, but since we are well behind in EVs now, it would be nice to not to have to pay a Trump Tax to get quality products.

As long as I'm ranting about Tesla, their cars don't even use lidar, they just use regular cameras. Lidars can see everything around it clearly no matter if it's day or night, rain or fog. Tesla is trying to use regular cameras and then brute force self-driving, essentially as an AI powered post process image recognition system. It's an absolutely terrible idea that has not worked and never will work, which is why no one else is doing it.

Mark Rober's video is an infomercial. The driver of the other vehicle is the CEO of Luminar, which manufacturs LiDAR systems. Nearly half of Mark's video is basically a Powerpoint presentation espousing the benefits of his sponsor's products. In contrast, he only ever refers to the vision system he is comparing as "inexpensive" and "simple". He spends no time describing how it works as he does with the LiDAR system. If you look at the description under the video, Mark offers a promotional link to sell one of his Build Boxes... using the word "Lidar" in the URL. In the full clip leading up to the "Wile E. Coyote" crash, it can be seen that he quite intentionally waits until just 3 seconds before encountering the wall to engage Autopilot, giving it no time to establish itself. His video is the last place we should be looking for data.

 

[sreams]

Imagine taking over 30 minutes to put a quarter of tank of gas in a vehicle.....that's how terrible most EVs are, that's the reason most people don't want to buy an EV...and yet you ask the ignorant question "Do people really need to charge a car at that rate?"

That question is as ignorant as it is puzzling.

Imagine having to go to a station to fill up your vehicle every several hundred miles.

95% of the typical EV's refueling is done at home while the owner sleeps. That's why many people want to buy an EV.

I have four gas cars and one EV. The EV spends the least time over the course of a year at a station filling up, and is driven the most miles of all of them, by far.

 

[MasterAce]

Charging my EV on the go takes about 15-20min, just enough time to strech my legs, get a coffee and use the toilet. I very rarely have to actually sit in the car and wait for it to charge. Sure, MW charging will be great but we also need to ramp up the electric grid and production just to keep up with EV adoption, and it doesn’t seem to be happening very fast

 

[Angga B]

Dumping MegaWattHour of energy into battery in minutes, what could possibly go wrong... Hmm...

 

[toooooot]

It's no wonder Chinese enjoy clean streets, self driving cars and technology putting ours to shame.

I would rather live in the filthiest country than the one that treats its people like China.
Above all, except for 5% of their wealthy ones, their people are still slaves. They are afraid to say a word again Winnie the Poo.
It is the same sh*t people say about Russia and Putin. "Look how awesome and strong he is, look at traditional values and suppression of perverts Russians enjoy there."
Everything China achieved in the last 20 years was possible thanks to "filthy" Western countries, by the means of tech sharing or more often--theft.
You know is theirs though? Something they can truly pride themselves about?
Tens of millions starved, millions killed in concentration camps when communism was established.

 

[Kirby1]

Mark Rober's video is an infomercial. The driver of the other vehicle is the CEO of Luminar, which manufacturs LiDAR systems. Nearly half of Mark's video is basically a Powerpoint presentation espousing the benefits of his sponsor's products. In contrast, he only ever refers to the vision system he is comparing as "inexpensive" and "simple". He spends no time describing how it works as he does with the LiDAR system. If you look at the description under the video, Mark offers a promotional link to sell one of his Build Boxes... using the word "Lidar" in the URL. In the full clip leading up to the "Wile E. Coyote" crash, it can be seen that he quite intentionally waits until just 3 seconds before encountering the wall to engage Autopilot, giving it no time to establish itself. His video is the last place we should be looking for data.

No.

Lidar is an absolute nacessaty for self driving. This is basic science.

 

[mbk34]

[do you need to charge at that rate?] Are you for real? I guess you have never driven a long distance.

I guess everyone's use case is different. Perhaps once or twice a year I might drive more than 300 miles in a day and for these rare trips I'd be happy to wait 40 mins while I have lunch and stretch my legs. The rest of the time I'd just wake up, unplug my EV and drive off from home with a full tank which means I'd never be queuing for gas or paying for gas. Plus the maintenance is minimal on EVs (it's mostly just tyres and windscreen wiper replacements) so there's the time and cost savings there.

Imagine taking over 30 minutes to put a quarter of tank of gas in a vehicle.....that's how terrible most EVs are, that's the reason most people don't want to buy an EV...and yet you ask the ignorant question "Do people really need to charge a car at that rate?"

If you can't charge at home or if you regularly drive more than 300 miles a day then EVs won't be for you. Most EV owners just charge at home so they wake up everyday to a full tank. I guess there must be some reason why EV drivers are content to pay $7 to fill their tanks, to pay almost nothing for maintenance (except consumables) and to have super car performance if they floor it. I guess you're not one of these.

I take road trips in the 600-ish mile range once or twice a month. I stop every 120-150 miles to take a break, so Tesla's 120KW would probably be fast enough if one could count on one being everywhere you need it. Which you can't. Which is why EVs are great as a city car, but terrible for travel.

I don't think the problem is with EVs but with the charging infra structure in your country. In most of Europe there's no issue finding a charger.

 

[VitalyT]

Tesla's stock price slumped by around 5% following the announcement.

This made my day.

 

[Kirby1]

I guess everyone's use case is different. Perhaps once or twice a year I might drive more than 300 miles in a day and for these rare trips I'd be happy to wait 40 mins while I have lunch and stretch my legs. The rest of the time I'd just wake up, unplug my EV and drive off from home with a full tank which means I'd never be queuing for gas or paying for gas. Plus the maintenance is minimal on EVs (it's mostly just tyres and windscreen wiper replacements) so there's the time and cost savings there.


If you can't charge at home or if you regularly drive more than 300 miles a day then EVs won't be for you. Most EV owners just charge at home so they wake up everyday to a full tank. I guess there must be some reason why EV drivers are content to pay $7 to fill their tanks, to pay almost nothing for maintenance (except consumables) and to have super car performance if they floor it. I guess you're not one of these.


I don't think the problem is with EVs but with the charging infra structure in your country. In most of Europe there's no issue finding a charger.

The arguments people bend over backwards for just to argue in-favor of stunted technology is just so bizarre to me.

This is a tech site. If you are arguing for lesser tech, you're not one of us.

 

[SRB]

The arguments people bend over backwards for just to argue in-favor of stunted technology is just so bizarre to me.

This is a tech site. If you are arguing for lesser tech, you're not one of us.

No, stating facts that apply IS the scientific process, to explore and test ALL options.

Lidar and cameras share one huge problem as far as self driving cars go, rain and snow render BOTH mostly ineffective.

I've never understood the current public discourse about most tech these days. If you like an idea, you latch on to it, promote it, and destroy opposition to it.

Wait, come to think of it, that's how politics is practiced today as well!

We NEED to go back to being allow to discuss pros and cons of everything. Cheerleading and winner take all gets in the way of EVERYTHING.

Musk is no different.....hero to devil due only to politics.

 

[mbk34]

This is a tech site. If you are arguing for lesser tech, you're not one of us.

The problem with fitting larger batteries than people need is that it hurts efficiency due to extra weight and raises the price of the vehicle. The problem with having faster charging speeds than needed is that you again have to pay for the technology plus the existing infrastructure in america is barely capable of supporting current EVs.

I love technology but I'd rather have technology I can afford and that matches my needs. I'd even prefer it if EVs were less powerful as having 0-60mph times in under 5 seconds isn't something I need and just raises insurance costs. I still think I'm a tech geek though - I designed databases for a living, as a hobby I write computer games for MAME cabinets, I ride around on an electric unicycle and this week I'm rebuilding an early Ipod with modern hardware - I suspect I belong here more than most

 

[ScottSoapbox]

I don't think the problem is with EVs but with the charging infrastructure in your country. In most of Europe there's no issue finding a charger.

Obviously, thus my "if one could count on one being everywhere you need it. Which you can't."

The difference is Europe is much smaller than the US. It is 878 miles just to cross Texas. That would take you from Rome to Paris or Paris to Portugal. One of my common 600+ mile trips is between cities in adjoining states. I'm not going "far" I'm visiting a neighboring state. It is much more difficult to cover so much land mass with fast chargers - especially the more rural/agrarian places.