Megawatt Flash Charging on BYD Super e-Platform ushers in ‘Fuel and Electricity at the Same Speed’

BYD, the world’s largest new-energy vehicle maker, announced a novel electric-vehicle platform that claims to remove charging anxiety by matching combustion-engined car refueling rates. Super e-Platform, the revolutionary architecture, delivers world-first innovations in mass-produced electric vehicles.

Motor, electrical control, and battery have been extensively enhanced on the Super e-Platform. The platform has the greatest peak charging speed for mass-production automobiles at 1,000kW. Super e-Platform can add two kilometers of range per second and the world’s fastest mass-production charging speed: a five-minute flash charge for 400 km of driving range.

The architecture’s single 580kW power-motor output allows the China-market HAN L and TANG L to go over 300 km/h. A new motor that runs at 30,000rpm—another mass-production record—enables this high peak speed and acceleration.

At the introduction ceremony in Shenzhen, BYD Group Chairman and President Wang Chuanfu claimed the new technology will eliminate the major ‘pain point’ for electric-vehicle drivers. To reduce charging anxiety, he said, “We want to make EV charging as fast as refueling a gasoline car – achieving ‘oil-electric parity’ in charging speed.”

To achieve parity, charging requires ultra-high voltage and enormous current. Super e-Platform is the first mass-produced passenger automobile platform with a “all-domain kilovolt high-voltage architecture” that allows kilovolt-level battery, motor, power supply, and air conditioning capability.

The Super e-Platform also debuts BYD’s “Flash Charging Battery,” which has an ultra-fast ion channel from anode to cathode and a mass-production benchmark 1,000A and 10C charging current.

For these rates, BYD has designed and mass-produced a new generation of automotive-grade silicon carbide (SiC) power chip with a voltage rating of up to 1,500V, the industry’s first and highest.

Megawatt charging requires megawatts.
To maximize its capability, ultra-rapid charging needs upgraded charging stations. BYD Executive Vice President and President of Auto Engineering Research Institute Lian Yubo said at the same launch ceremony that BYD has created an industry-first, complete liquid-cooled megawatt flash-charging terminal system with a 1,360kW maximum output.

China-wide, BYD aims to install over 4,000 megawatt flash-charging stations. In addition to its own stations, BYD has created “dual-gun charging” technology that can immediately boost fast chargers to ultra-fast and superchargers to flash chargers. Another global first, this “intelligent boost” technology works with public charging stations for easy charging in many places.

BYD thinks that this engagement with existing infrastructure, together with its fast charging stations and Super e-Platform, redefines electric transportation and strengthens China’s global electrification leadership.