- BYD and CATL are embroiled in a race to cut charging times
- Fast-charging dominated this year’s Beijing Auto Show
- Charge times as little as 6.5 minutes are currently being touted
This year’s Beijing Auto Show proved the perfect opportunity for China to flex its automotive muscle, with 17 exhibition halls housing more than 1,500 vehicles and advances in the technology that powers them.
In fact, in the two years since the Beijing Auto Show was last held (it alternates with Shanghai), a brand new convention center was built next to the existing exhibition hall — a fitting visual metaphor to China’s rapidily expanding auto industry.
With new cars comes new technology and the event also served as the perfect place to showcase the latest battery and charging technology, with a number of companies vying to drastically reduce EV charge times to under 10 minutes.
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Right now, in the Western world, you’re lucky if you can complete a 10-80% charge in 30 minutes or less, but CATL recently showcased its Shenxing 3 EB battery pack that it said can hit 10 to 98 percent in 6.5 minutes.
BYD also has battery technology that can charge from 10 to 97% in just nine minutes, while even second-tier Chinese battery suppliers, including CALB Group, EVE Energy and Sunwoda, all unveiled products capable of boosting power from 10 to 70 per cent in under 10 minutes, according to the South China Morning Post.
Analysis: Everything electric to get a boost
It wasn't just four-wheeled EVs that were given a charging boost at the Beijing Auto Show. Sunwoda also wants to apply its know-how to eBikes, showcasing a battery that charges from 10 per cent to 80 per cent in 20 minutes and lasts for at least 2,000 cycles, according to its maker.
This would effectively allow eBike owners to complete even long commutes and then charge up at coffee stops, rather waiting the several hours it typically takes today.
“The time needed to replenish energy is perhaps the final frontier where electric vehicles have yet to fully surpass petrol cars in China,” Li Xianyang (a battery specialist at Sunwoda) told the South China Morning Post. “So everyone has to compete on time.”
Whichever way you cut it, China appears to be light-years ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to offering innovative and rapid EV charging solutions.
Alongside its game-changing megawatt charging outlets, it is also a purveyor of battery swap tech, with domestic carmaker Nio proving that a full swap takes three minute with a live demo at the Beijing Auto Show.
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