BEIJING: BYD on Monday (Mar 17) unveiled a new platform for electric vehicles (EVs) that it said could charge EVs as quickly as it takes to pump gas and announced for the first time that it would build a charging network across China.
The so-called “super e-platform” will be capable of peak charging speeds of 1,000 kilowatts (kW), enabling cars that use it to travel 400km on a 5-minute charge, founder Wang Chuanfu said at an event live-streamed from the company’s Shenzhen headquarters.
Charging speeds of 1,000kW would be twice as fast as Tesla’s superchargers, whose latest version offers up to 500kW charging speeds. Fast-charging technology has been key to increasing EV adoption as it is seen to help assure EV drivers’ concerns over being able to charge their cars quickly.
“In order to completely solve our user’s charging anxiety, we have been pursuing a goal to make the charging time of electric vehicles as short as the refuelling time of petrol vehicles,” Wang said.
“This is the first time in the industry that the unit of megawatt (charge) has been achieved on charging power,” he added.
