Investors loved BYD’s new superfast chargers, but how do they stack up against the competition?
BYD investors were cheering at the start of the week, after the Chinese electric vehicle giant unveiled its new superfast charging tech at an event in Shenzhen on Monday, with plans to install 4,000 “Super e-Platform” ports across its home nation to try and quell range anxiety.
But just how fast is “superfast”? And how does BYD’s new technology stack up against some of its biggest competitors in the EV market?
Though there’s no one-size-fits-all standardized measure of charging speeds, electric vehicle manufacturers tend to discuss milestones or benchmarks — like BYD claiming that it can add ~250 miles of range in five minutes. From those claims, we can work out how many miles of range are added per minute.
Tesla, for example, says that its Superchargers can add “up to 200 miles in 15 minutes of charge” — the equivalent of about 13 miles added per minute of charging. Mercedes-Benz claims that its “CLA 250+ with EQ Technology can be recharged to a range of up to 325 kilometres within ten minutes,” or roughly 20 miles every minute.
Here’s how a few major EV makers stack up, based on public statements about charger tech and company claims about their fastest-charging models (where available).
Per Wang Chuanfu, BYD’s founder and CEO, the company aims to “make the charging time of electric vehicles as short as the refuelling time of petrol vehicles.” If the new charging tech is as quick as the automaker says, that goal isn’t far off.
But just how fast is “superfast”? And how does BYD’s new technology stack up against some of its biggest competitors in the EV market?
Though there’s no one-size-fits-all standardized measure of charging speeds, electric vehicle manufacturers tend to discuss milestones or benchmarks — like BYD claiming that it can add ~250 miles of range in five minutes. From those claims, we can work out how many miles of range are added per minute.
Tesla, for example, says that its Superchargers can add “up to 200 miles in 15 minutes of charge” — the equivalent of about 13 miles added per minute of charging. Mercedes-Benz claims that its “CLA 250+ with EQ Technology can be recharged to a range of up to 325 kilometres within ten minutes,” or roughly 20 miles every minute.
Here’s how a few major EV makers stack up, based on public statements about charger tech and company claims about their fastest-charging models (where available).
Per Wang Chuanfu, BYD’s founder and CEO, the company aims to “make the charging time of electric vehicles as short as the refuelling time of petrol vehicles.” If the new charging tech is as quick as the automaker says, that goal isn’t far off.
