Leading Chinese electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer BYD has unveiled a new-generation battery featuring charging speeds that the company says can rival a refill at a petrol station. BYD’s Blade Battery 2.0, launched last week, can be charged from 10% to 70% in five minutes, and to 97% in nine minutes, which the company said was the world’s fastest charging speed for a mass-manufactured unit. Even in extreme weather, with temperatures as low as minus 30°C, it will only take 12 minutes to charge from 20% to 97%, BYD said. BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu said the industry’s current solution to range anxiety relied on building larger batteries and more charging stations, which led to a waste of resources without addressing the underlying problem.
“The only way out is to make charging as fast and convenient as refueling a gas car,” Wang said at a live-streamed launch event. “Once we replicate that refueling experience, these anxieties will vanish.” Wang said the company would build a network of 20,000 “flash charging” stations equipped with the latest technology across China by the end of this year, with 18,000 to be incorporated within existing facilities. The charging stations can hit a peak output of 1,500 kW, BYD said.
Tesla, led by U.S. billionaire Elon Musk, launched its most advanced V4 supercharger, with peak charge rates up to 500 kW, in mainland China in June last year. But there are only 40 of them across the country. With the launch of the new battery, BYD is looking to re-energize China’s EV market, which is facing slowing momentum after years of rapid growth. To attract would-be buyers, BYD promised to offer a year of free charging services for vehicles carrying its latest battery.
BYD also launched an updated version of the Denza Z9 GT, a premium EV featuring a range of up to 1,036 km that is powered by the Blade Battery 2.0. Its price starts at CNY269,800. BYD, China’s largest EV maker and one of the few that are profitable, saw its total vehicle sales fall 35.8% year-on-year to 400,241 units in the first two months of this year. In the third quarter of last year, BYD’s net profit slumped 32.6% year-on-year due to an industry-wide price war. The average selling prices of new renewable energy vehicles fell 11% last year to CNY195,000, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), which said it was the biggest drop in around three years.
With tax incentives having been reduced this year, UBS analysts have projected that China’s EV deliveries will rise 8% year-on-year, compared with a 28.2% increase last year, the South China Morning Post reports.
