The Chinese automaker BYD has introduced a revolutionary charging infrastructure that can increase an EV’s range by about 250 miles in just five minutes. This is a significant advancement that gets EV refueling periods extremely close to those of conventional gasoline-powered vehicles.
During a livestreamed event from the company’s Shenzhen headquarters on March 17, 2025, BYD founder and chairman Wang Chuanfu announced the “Super E-Platform,” which industry watchers are describing as the most significant advancement in charging technology since Tesla launched its Supercharger network more than ten years ago.
Current industry leaders are significantly outperformed by BYD’s revolutionary architecture, which works at an unprecedented 1,000 volts and charges at up to 1,000 kilowatts (1 megawatt). In contrast, BYD’s technology takes three times as long to reach a comparable range as Tesla’s most recent V4 Superchargers, which can reach a maximum of 500kW and provide roughly 171 miles of range in 15 minutes.
As a result, BYD is able to charge batteries at ten times the capacity per hour. In other words, it takes six minutes, or one tenth of an hour, to fully charge a battery. It is sufficient to supply 70-80% charge at around the peak rate, say within 5 minutes, even if reaching the full 100% charge takes 15 minutes or more. However, this may not be the case because charging speeds drastically decrease once the battery is charged to about 80%.
The Han L sedan and Tang L SUV, which start at 270,000 yuan (about Rs 30 lakhs) and 280,000 yuan, respectively, are the two high-end models in which BYD will introduce the technology. Both cars have cutting-edge driver aid features including LiDAR sensors installed on the roof and acceleration times that are competitive with those of high-end sports cars.
The seven-seat Tang L SUV can reach 60 mph in 3.6 seconds, while the Han L can reach 60 mph in about 2.7 seconds, putting it in competition with the Tesla Model 3 Performance.
