- BYD and CATL are engaged in a race to reduce charging time
- Fast charging dominated this year’s Beijing Auto Show
- Charging times as little as 6.5 minutes are currently being touted
This year’s Beijing Auto Show proved to be 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 power them.
In fact, in the two years since the Beijing Auto Show was last held (it switched to Shanghai), a brand new convention center has been built next to the existing exhibition hall – an apt visual metaphor for China’s fast-growing auto industry.
With new cars comes new technology, and the event also served as the perfect venue to showcase the latest battery and charging technology, with a number of companies racing to drastically reduce EV charging 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 showed off its Shenxing 3 EB battery pack, which it said can reach 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 percent in under 10 minutes, according to the South China Morning Post.
Analysis: All electric for a boost
It wasn’t just four-wheeled electric cars that got 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 percent to 80 percent in 20 minutes and lasts for at least 2,000 cycles, according to the manufacturer.
This would effectively allow eBike owners to complete even long commutes and then charge up at coffee stops, rather than waiting the several hours it typically takes today.
“The time needed to replenish the energy is perhaps the last frontier where electric vehicles have not yet fully surpassed gasoline cars in China,” Li Xianyang (a battery specialist at Sunwoda) told the South China Morning Post. “So everyone has to compete on time.”
No matter how you slice it, China seems to be light years ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to offering innovative and fast EV charging solutions.
In addition to its game-changing megawatt charging outlets, it is also a supplier of battery swapping technology, with domestic automaker Nio proving that a full swap takes three minutes with a live demo at the Beijing Auto Show.
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