BYD's luxury EV with 5-min fast charging and 500 miles range is headed overseas | Hacker News Reader

BYD's luxury EV with 5-min fast charging and 500 miles range is headed overseas

electrek.co

22 pointsbreve23 comments

Is 5min charge and 500mile range enough to finally stop the usual procession of objections to EVs? I know this is a luxury model and the charging stations will take awhile to roll out, but the trajectory is crystal clear and the momentum fast.

Where’s the usual comments claiming that hybrids are the true way forward?

Wait, people here claim that hybrid is the future? All while Chinese EVs are taking over everywhere?

It’s in every discussion here on EVs. Thread after thread of PHEVs lauded as the “obvious practical choice” despite being already essentially obsolete

Link one.

EVs around the world will be getting 1000 miles and we’ll (US) be adding a 3rd row to our trucks.

> Where’s the usual comments claiming that hybrids are the true way forward?

I've never ever seen anyone claim that hybrid is the end goal.

I've only ever seen people say that hybrid is the practical stopgap until faster charging rate/infrastructure and better range is available, probably the result of next-gen batteries.

> The new Denza Z9 GT, or the world’s longest-range pure EV, as BYD claims, is headed to Europe, offering 5-minute fast charging and a WLTP range of nearly 500 miles.

I guess BYD doesn’t know about Lucid? Or the behemoth truck EVs like the Chevy Silverado EV? Both of those have nearly 500mi of EPA range, which means a lot more range than WLTP in normal conditions.

Can any of those charge in 5 min?

That’s not the claim. Longest range is the claim, not “fastest total travel time” or something.

> Thanks to BYD’s new Blade Battery 2.0 and Flash Charging technology, the all-electric shooting brake can drive up to 1,036 km (644 miles) under CTLC conditions

This is what makes the longest range EV as per their claim.

The "range of nearly 500 miles" is what is going on sale in Europe.

And if lucid actually tested to CTLC, it’d probably be over that figure too. Pointless comparison given how optimistic CTLC is.

if you can fast charge in 5 minutes, why do you need the cost and weight of a 500 mile range 130kwh battery?

There are a number of reasons. 1) You won't always have access to the 1.5MW charging. 2) Stopping to charge, even if it's just for a few minutes, is inconvenient. 3) A larger battery will allow for greater lifetime range before it degrades to <80%

You forgot the biggest reason: Winter. What works for benchmarking under nice Cali weather condition doesn't work for IRL. Current generation lithium ion estimates are ~30-50% halving of range in winter (it's especially bad if you don't have your own garage with charging and pre warming the battery can easily reduce the availability battery capacity by another few percent in exchange for better en route efficiency).

Which is why the new sodium-ion batteries are likely to be preferred in cold climates, because even if they cannot reach energy/mass ratios as good as the best lithium-ion batteries, they lose much less of their capacity and charging speed, down to -40 Celsius degrees (-40 Fahrenheit degrees).

While for now sodium-ion batteries have similar prices with lithium-ion batteries, due to being on the market for less than a year, their second advantage is that once their production becomes more mature they should be significantly cheaper than Li-ion batteries.

range anxiety

> The Denza Z9 GT is available in China, starting at 269,800 yuan ($39,300).

Oh my. EV war is over I suppose.

Considering BYD is down in sales it doesn’t seem like that’s the case

Probably meant the war between EVs and gasoline cars, not the one between all the brands in China.

The Chinese government has been all in on electrifying everything that they possibly can.

China can make electricity. Gasoline is at the whims of a US president.

I have not seen information that BYD is significantly down in sales.

Forbes says that BYD had lower profits last year, due to intense competition inside China, which lead to lower sale prices.

On the other hand it is said that overseas BYD expects to have in 2026 sales 50% higher than in 2025.

There has been about a half of year during which the BYD sales in car numbers have been slightly less than before, but already in March 2026 BYD reported sales of over 300 thousand cars, compared with less than 200 thousand in February.

If they will continue to grow at this pace they will easily reach their target of one million and a half cars exported outside China during this year.

In any case, BYD already sells in a month about the same as Tesla sells in a quarter, and the distance between them will only grow.

How does the fast charging affect the life and long term performance of the battery?

Holy smokes! Now this is the future and innovation I love to see. I can't wait to get my hands on any BYD.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com