[HONG KONG] BYD unveiled a new system for electric cars that the Chinese automaker says will allow them to charge almost as fast as it takes a regular car to refuel.
BYD’s new battery and charging system was capable of providing 470 kilometres of range in five minutes in tests on its new Han L sedan, chairman and founder Wang Chuanfu said on Monday (Mar 17). The manufacturer will start selling vehicles with the new technology next month.
Being able to charge a car in the time it takes a combustion engine vehicle to pull in and out of a gas station could convince drivers who are not willing to make lengthy stops to go electric.
The new platform, which will underpin many of its future electric vehicles (EVs), could provide another boost for BYD, which has come from behind to rival Tesla as the world’s top EV seller. It requires new charging infrastructure that the Chinese company has pledged to set up.
The speeds would be comfortably ahead of Tesla’s Superchargers, which can add up to 275 kilometres of range in 15 minutes. Tesla, however, has a much larger network of more than 65,000 Superchargers worldwide. Mercedes-Benz Group’s new entry-level CLA electric sedan unveiled last week can add 325 kilometres in 10 minutes of charging.
BYD’s new EV platform will allow cars to reach a speed of 100 kilometres per hour in two seconds, Wang said at the event at the carmaker’s headquarters in Shenzhen.
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The first models to get the ultra-fast charging will be the Han L and the Tang L sport utility vehicle. They will start at 270,000 yuan (S$49,647) and 280,000 yuan, respectively, and will be sold from April. BYD will build more than 4,000 charging stations designed to accommodate the new technology.
This is BYD “elevating the game to another dimension”, said Lei Xing, an independent China autos analyst.
BYD has had a stellar start to 2025. The company, which only makes hybrid and fully electric cars, sold more than 318,000 passenger vehicles last month, up 161 per cent from a year earlier. It’s the top carmaker in China, the world’s biggest auto market, with a share approaching 15 per cent. BYD’s Hong Kong-listed shares, which were little changed on Monday, are up about 45 per cent this year.
An advanced EV powertrain could further boost demand for BYD’s next-generation cars, said Joanna Chen, a China autos analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence. “This could mark the beginning of a new wave of model rollouts, propelling BYD’s battery-EV sales to catch up with hybrids after they fell behind in 2024,” she said.
BYD is also starting to set the pace in advanced driver-assistance technology. The company earlier this year said that it’s taking this to the masses by including features such as lane-keeping and adaptive cruise control in some of its cheapest models.
BYD’s Super e-Platform may also pose a competitive threat to Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Limited (CATL), currently the world’s largest manufacturer of EV batteries. Li Auto, for example, is using one of CATL’s latest generation batteries to enable charging that gives 500 kilometres of range in 12 minutes. BLOOMBERG
