BYD to install 5-minute EV chargers across Europe | Hacker News Reader

BYD to install 5-minute EV chargers across Europe

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42 pointsBrajeshwar14 comments

I had no idea there were 1500kW fast chargers, this is insanely high power for a car.

Maybe this would be useful for long haul trucks or something where they have large battery capacities and want to save as much time as they can, but it seems like way overkill for any normal person.

>The 1,500kW charging stations are significantly more powerful than Tesla’s 500kW V4 Superchargers

>it charges to 70 percent in five minutes on the new chargers.

By my math this means it would charge to 70% in 15 minutes on the 500kW charger? That's already plenty fast, my car does nowhere near 500kW and it's fine the couple of times a year I need it.

I'm thinking that most people will not use the full speed in EU. But these are a design capable of charging everything up to light-duty trucks in the same timescale of a gasoline car. The design is probably overkill for Europe or the US, but consider high-volume high density urban charging in China.

I can fill my gas car in 5 minutes, this makes an EV essentially no different. I don't want to sit around 15 minutes to fill up my car on a road trip that also increases stall throughput 3X.

I think Chinese are taking the correct approach focusing on charge speed rather than range, although their range is going up too using LFP batteries that are very safe and have long cycle life.

Good video here looking at the future for EV that is already a reality over there: https://youtu.be/ajim7KF30jE

You can’t fill your car with gas overnight while sleeping, however.

Don’t get me wrong. I think these chargers are very useful, but the ultra fast ones are not as critical for EVs ad a fast gas station is for ICE vehicles.

Yes charging at home is great until you need to go on a long road trip or you live somewhere without the ability to charge overnight.

I can charge overnight but I am not going to give up a gas car until the fast charging situation is better. I do have an EV around town and its great, but the road tripper is gas, looking at PHEV as a middle ground for next car.

I really wonder what all this fast charging means for battery longevity. In general, nothing good, right?

These are typically LFP batteries that already have significantly longer cycle life and are a much more stable chemistry than the NCA / NCM cells in normally found in western cars.

The cells are also designed toward charge speed vs capacity (more copper less lithium) and cooling systems capable of keeping batteries at good temps even with 10C charging, so overall they are shooting for million mile batteries, I don't think people realize how robust LFP's are and that China is all in on that chemistry and the progress being made there.

the chargers are also giant grid scale storage batteries that charge up at night and then will transfer power to cars durring the day, or whatever other function that provides a service and revenue stream. that the 3000 chargers are optimised for the ultra luxo top of the line chinese cars, says that the marketing strategy in europe is to sell flagship killers AND convienience to certain target populations, while Teslas 20000 chargers will become outmoded. presumably the eu will step in soon and force a tighter standard for chargers, which will favor the highest voltage that can be handled safley, and matches line voltages as closely as possible as the near future will involve insuring grid capacity and grid battery storage that integrates with more and more electrification in general. Keeping those standard is proving to be a challenge in the US because of data centers failing to maintain voltage lock which causes all kind of problems for other customers and the grid operators.

Depends how expensive it is going to be. Ionity can charge fast in Europe, but before the Iran war, price for charging could exceed price for gas.

5 minutes, for the only model available in EU that costs €120k+

They will probably sell more models in the future.

When I watched another video on it, they said that the charging capability will roll out across their product line eventually.

1,140 horsepower (850 kW) for 120k Euro is still one of the cheapest option in EU.

Indeed. Unfortunately you can only unleash that power on tracks

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