Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD has unveiled a new system for electric cars that the company says will allow them to charge almost as fast as it takes a regular car to refuel, Bloomberg reported.
BYD’s new battery and charging system was capable of providing 470km of range in five minutes in tests on its new Han L sedan, Chairman and founder Wang Chuanfu reportedly said Monday.
BYD’s new EV platform will allow cars to reach 100km per hour in two seconds, he said at the event at the company’s headquarters in Shenzhen.
The new system, which will underpin many of its future EVs, could provide another boost for BYD, which has come from behind to rival Tesla Inc as the world’s top EV seller.
The speeds would be comfortably ahead of Tesla’s Superchargers, which can add up to 275km of range in 15 minutes, according to Bloomberg. Tesla, however, has a much larger network of more than 65,000 Superchargers worldwide.
Mercedes-Benz Group AG’s new entry-level CLA electric sedan unveiled last week can add 325km in 10 minutes of charging.
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.
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 percent from a year earlier. It’s the top carmaker in China, the world’s biggest auto market, with a share approaching 15 percent. BYD’s Hong Kong-listed shares, which were little changed on Monday, are up about 45 percent this year.
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 like lane-keeping and adaptive cruise control in some of its cheapest models.
