Chinese EV giant BYD has launched a new 1,000-volt ‘Super E-Platform’ that’s reportedly capable of charging as fast as it takes to fill an ICE car, with 400km of charge added in just five minutes.

According to BYD, its new platform will end long waits at EV chargers and EVs will become as easy to charge as petrol and diesel vehicles are to fill with fuel.

2

Current leaders in electric vehicle charging such as Hyundai, Kia, Genesis and BYD employ 800-volt architectures, allowing for peak charging speeds of up to around 350kW – around a third of what BYD’s new architecture will be capable of.

Globally, no EV chargers are capable of charging at 1,000kW but BYD says that it will roll out more than 4,000 ultra-fast chargers in China to compliment the new Super E-Platform.

According to BYD, the new charging tech will debut on its new Han L and Tang L EVs, and both are now available to order in China. BYD conducted testing on the Han L and found that a five-minute charge gave the car 470km of range.

The Han L starts at around A$60,000 in China and features a 500kW rear motor and an 83.2kWh LFP battery. The Tang L SUV features the same motors as the Han L but uses a larger 100kWh battery and is priced from around A$62,000.

BYD is yet to make any announcement about the new charging tech spreading to other global markets, but we’d wager it being quite a distance off for local EV stations in Australia. According to charging app PlugShare, there are less than 40 350kW fast chargers for EV owners to charge at.

MORE Everything BYD