China-based electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer BYD has showcased a new platform for EVs, which it claims can charge EVs as quickly as it takes to refuel an internal combustion engine car.
It said it plans to build a charging network across China.
The new platform will reportedly have charging speeds of up to 1000kW, which would allow cars to travel 400km on a five-minute charge according to BYD.
This would be double the speed of its American competitor Tesla, which offers charging speeds of 500kW.
Two new EVs will be able to use the new charging architecture first. These are the Han L sedan and the Tang L SUV, which will be priced from $37,328.91 (270,000 yuan), it said.
Alongside these EVs, 4000 charging units will be built across China, but gave no timeline for when these would be built nor budget, it said.
Owners of BYD EVs have had to rely on infrastructure from other automakers to charge their vehicles, or public charging poles owned by third parties, according to Reuters.
Most of the vehicles BYD sells are plug-in hybrids, of which it sold 4.2 million units last year. It’s target for 2025 is to sell 5-6 million units.
Wang Chuanfu, founder and CEO, BYD, said: “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. This is the first time in the industry that the unit of megawatt has been achieved on charging power.”
