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BYD reveals its megawatt charging system (MCS) for its passenger cars, promising a gain of 249 miles of range in just five minutes at up to 1,000 kW.
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The BYD Tang L SUV and Han L sedan will be the first new models to take advantage of these charging speeds.
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The automaker’s MCS relies on an updated Blade battery design, but also on appropriate charging infrastructure that has yet to be built at scale.
You may have heard of megawatt-level charging for electric trucks, but until now the tech did not seem all that realistic for passenger cars, even though it promised charging sessions well below 10 minutes.
That’s just what Chinese automaker BYD unveiled this week thanks to its Super e-Platform that’s going into production this year. And it promises to be quite reasonably priced, at least if you live where you’ll be able to take advantage of it.
The main promise of this tech, based on BYD’s updated Blade battery, are charging speeds of up to 1,000 kW. This will permit an EV to gain about 400 kilometers, or nearly 250 miles of range, in just five minutes.
By comparison, the quickest DC fast-chargers in the US usually serve up to 350 kW—if you can find them and if your EV can even handle it. And at the moment, there aren’t many models offered in North America that can take advantage of anything above the 300-kW mark.
BYD’s first two models that will be able to take advantage of this tech will be the Tang L SUV, which will start at just over $37,000, and the Han L sedan that will wear an identical sticker.
Of course, the batteries themselves are just one part of the equation. The other part is having enough infrastructure to make megawatt charging somewhat commonplace and affordable compared to slower charging systems.
BYD NICHOLAS SHEARMAN – Getty Images
BYD has indicated that it intends to build over 4,000 chargers in China that will be able to serve up these speeds, in an ambitious infrastructure undertaking.
However, in doing so BYD will be effectively competing against another existing technology that can “recharge” an EV in mere minutes.
Competitor brand Nio has been building battery swap stations in China and in Europe for the past few years, while welcoming other automakers to its common battery swap standard. The swap process itself, after a car enters a carwash-like station, also takes just a few minutes, with the station keeping a collection of spare batteries inside that are slowly recharged and readied for the next cars.
This solution also serves up automatic recharges as quick as a fuel fill up, while not needing to deliver crazy levels of power in mere minutes, thereby lessening the station’s impact on the grid. In fact, the relatively modest power requirements of such stations are cited as one of their advantages, compared to DCFC stations.
Megawatt charging systems (MCS) for battery-electric semi trucks have already seen a limited rollout in Europe, with plans to build such stations along busy trucking routes where trucks with north of 500 kWh of batteries on board will be able to get juiced up in under an hour.
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However, such stations are bound to remain rare for the foreseeable future, as are trucks that can cope with with power (and the prices) of such charging speeds. So we’re not holding our breath to see MCS stations blasting small European hatchbacks with 1,000 kW anytime soon.
Ultimately, the range wars may promise EV shoppers the convenience of lightning-quick recharges, provided they’re at the right station to take advantage of it. But they also tend to overlook the fact that most EVs will still be charging at much slower and affordable speeds at home, overnight.
Are charging speeds still one of the main issues holding back greater EV adoption in the US, or are other factors like the ability to find EV charging stations, or EV prices, more important at the moment? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
