Chinese Electric Vehicle Has Battery That Can Fully Charge in Six Minutes

What Happened?

Chinese firm BYD, headquartered in Shenzhen, China has developed a battery for its electric vehicles that can fully recharge in six minutes. 

The battery, named the “E-Platform” can provide two hundred and fifty miles of driving range while taking only six minutes to fully charge or recharge. At that rate the E-Platform can recharge twice as fast as Telsa’s superchargers.

“We have been pursuing a goal to make the charging time of electric vehicles as short as the refueling time of petrol vehicles," BYD founder Wang Chuanfu said at a launch event in Shenzhen, China. 

Why it Matters

Achieving a full battery charge in six minutes means BYD electric vehicles can receive a full charge in almost the same amount of time it takes to fill up a gas tank in a conventional automobile. 

Gas powered vehicles average two to five minutes to refuel, depending on the type of vehicle, gas pump, and the size of the vehicle’s tank. 

For consumers having a vehicle that can charge in nearly the same time as it takes to fill up a gas tank is an important psychological milestone. It means the BYD vehicles can offer buyers a way to refuel their cars in way that feels the same as a conventional automobile. 

Long recharging times have been a barrier for consumers, who understandably don’t want to spend half an hour or more waiting for their vehicle to recharge.

According to Live Science, to charge at such fast speeds, the e-platform simultaneously creates a high voltage while delivering a large current to the charging car. But high currents also tend to generate heat that damages EV batteries. 

To solve this problem, BYD developed a way to massively reduce the internal resistance inside the battery by using new silicon carbide power chips that can withstand higher voltages.  

To enable customers to use the new fast charging cars, BYD also announced it plans to establish a network of 4,000 flash charging stations across China. BYD hasn’t given any indications as to whether it will make flash charging stations available outside China. 

As a result of its innovative new batteries and flash charging stations, BYD is quickly overtaking Tesla as the number one seller of electric vehicles globally. 

Thus far Tesla has not made any public comments on the success of BYD.

How it Affects You

The delivery of a fast-charging electric vehicle to the market will provide a good test of whether consumers who were reluctant to buy electric because of long charge times will change their minds. 

If they do, fast-charging vehicles could usher in a new era of electric vehicle use not just in China but worldwide.