BYD has unveiled a new electric vehicle system that the Chinese automaker says can charge cars almost as quickly as refueling a regular car.
BYD’s new battery and charging system was able to provide 470 kilometers (292 miles) of range in five minutes during tests on its new Han L sedan, BYD’s chairman and founder Wang Chuanfu said on Monday.
Being able to charge internal combustion engine cars during the time it takes them to and from a gas station could persuade drivers unwilling to park for long periods of time to switch to electric vehicles.
The new system will underpin many future electric vehicles from BYD, which has come from behind to compete with Tesla Inc to become the world’s largest seller of electric vehicles.
Its speed will easily beat Tesla’s Supercharger stations, which can add 275 kilometers of range in 15 minutes. However, Tesla has a much larger network, with more than 65,000 Supercharger stations around the world. The new entry-level CLA electric sedan launched by the Mercedes-Benz Group last week can travel 325 kilometers on a 10-minute charge.
Wang said at an event at the company’s headquarters in Shenzhen that BYD’s new electric vehicle platform will allow the car to reach 100 kilometers per hour in two seconds.
This is BYD “taking the game to another dimension,” said Lei Xing, an independent Chinese auto analyst.
BYD is off to a good start in 2025. The company, which only makes hybrid and pure electric vehicles, sold more than 318,000 passenger vehicles last month, a 161% increase year-on-year. It is the top automaker in China, the world’s largest auto market, with a market share of nearly 15%. BYD’s Hong Kong-listed shares were little changed on Monday, having risen about 45% this year.
Joanna Chen, China auto analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said advanced electric vehicle powertrains may further increase demand for BYD’s next-generation vehicles. “This could mark the start of a new wave of model launches, pushing BYD’s pure electric vehicle sales to catch up with hybrid vehicle sales after falling behind in 2024,” she said.
BYD has also begun to take the lead in advanced driver assistance technology. The company said earlier this year it would bring the feature to the masses by adding features like lane keeping and adaptive cruise control to some of its cheapest models.
BYD’s Super e platform may also pose a competitive threat to Contemporary New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., currently the world’s largest electric vehicle battery manufacturer. Li Auto, for example, is using one of CATL’s latest generation batteries to charge and can travel 500 kilometers in 12 minutes.
© 2025 Bloomberg
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