BYD has taken a huge step closer to making EV charging as easy as filling up with gas, and that could be a major problem for Tesla.
The Chinese EV giant unveiled new fast chargers on Monday that it says can add 400 kilometers of range to an electric vehicle in five minutes.
BYD’s new 1,000 KW superchargers are four times as powerful as Tesla’s current 250 KW chargers, which Elon Musk’s automaker says can add 200 miles of range in 15 minutes. Tesla has plans to roll out 500 KW superchargers this year.
The reveal of BYD’s new “super E-platform” sparked a share price rally, with the company’s stock jumping as much as 4% to hit a record high.
Lengthy charging times and range anxiety are still cited as some of the main reasons consumers are reluctant to buy EVs. That has sparked a global race to build batteries and chargers that can make charging an electric car as simple as filling up a tank of gas.
Chinese firms Zeekr and CATL both unveiled batteries that could almost fully charge in 10 minutes last year, while Mercedes-Benz said last week its new CLA coupe will be able to add up to 325 kilometers of range in 10 minutes.
BYD now appears to have leapfrogged its rivals in China and elsewhere with its new charging tech. The tech is set to make its debut on the company’s new Han and Tang L EVs, set to go on sale later this year for 270,000 to 360,000 yuan ($37,300 to $49,800).
“In order to completely solve users’ charging anxiety, our goal is to make the charging time of electric vehicles as short as the refueling time of fuel vehicles,” said BYD chairman and founder Wang Chuanfu in a press conference.
The new fast chargers are the latest in a spree of technological advances announced by BYD in recent weeks.
The company said it would install advanced self-driving features on its entire vehicle lineup for free in February and unveiled a new roof-mounted drone system earlier this month.
EV companies in China are under huge pressure to roll out high-tech features such as autonomous driving and voice control as they compete to survive in the country’s brutally competitive car market.
Tesla, which counts China as one of its most important markets, is also feeling the heat.
The US automaker saw its Chinese sales fall 49% in February — compared to a 161% rise for BYD — and began offering free trials of its own autonomous driving system on Monday as it looks to claw back market share.
Tesla’s supercharger network, which Elon Musk’s company began offering in China in 2014, has been crucial in helping it become the world’s biggest EV company. Now, BYD is coming for that, too.
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