Discussion

How BYD Got EV Chargers to Work Almost as Fast as Gas Pumps

soared: Is this how the US falls behind? Missing technological improvements due to blind disagreements with Chinese/etc, combined with inability to update infrastructure? (Unclear how/why but datacenters being stood up so quickly seems like an exception to US’s bad construction)

himata4113: I mean if you really think about it china already has or is on the verge of:- energy independence- ASML level microchip production- the SOTA of AI- citizens that accept surveilence and lack of privacy- strong local manufacturing- eastern world support- yuan recognized as a stable world currencyBut they do suffer from issues as well:- Aging population- Autocracy (or well, one party system)- Brain drain (better funding and security in the US and Europe, US has managed to alienate a lot of very promising figures so it's closer to just Europe, but capital markets in Europe are still hit and miss)It's completely understandable why US is freaking out, china's future still looks a lot more promising than the one US find themselves in.

mbfg: More importantly, the US has banned these cars in America to give protection to american manufacturers.

ck2: to be clear Biden banned themsuper stupidnow absolutely no reason for American "manufacturers" to innovate on features or pricebecause they know there will never be competitionmeanwhile the highly educated and extremely savvy prime minister of Canada is now allowing those importsI wonder if any from Canada can make it down here, they should have same safety standards, is there a huge fee for individuals to import vs corporations?

BLKNSLVR: Data Centre builds are being managed by the tech bro companies aren't they? Don't they follow a much different set of rules than 'public' construction? (for better and worse).

dyauspitr: It’s a purposeful hamstringing of EV so the GOP’s oil and gas supporters can make 3-5 more years of money.

netfortius: This [0] is the actual (good) news, linked from the article.[0] https://www.techradar.com/vehicle-tech/hybrid-electric-vehic...

thinkthatover: now now, Canada is only allowing 50K of these cars to be imported per year. This is a middle power extending a hand to a superpower in the new multipolar world, nothing more. Also BYD subsidies (and sales) in China have been dropped in the past year.Is the tech better? Yes. Is protecting domestic auto capability from subsidies in the National Interest? Debatable. This convo always circles around to how we characterize subsidies (EV credits for Elon, direct state sponsorship by China) in a way that's always concealed just enough from the general public to stop people from asking hard questions.

philipallstar: I think you'd have to be a bit ignorant of very recent history to think that America is some cesspool of lack of innovation in the electric car industry. They invented it, despite there being no competition at the time.

whynotmaybe: > because they know there will never be competitionIn the US only.It seems to be the same small vision that lead to French cars being sold in droves in Latin America.

ahartmetz: It happens all the time that a government regulates foreign industries while giving domestic ones relatively free reign. Canada has no car manufacturers. Europe has no Facebooks or Apples. The US doesn't make diesel cars.

andyferris: Canada might not own car manufacturers but they do have factories that build cars for GM, Ford, etc, and these are important to their economy. I thought some were sold in the US even?Chinese companies aren’t exactly building factories in Canada to sell to NAFTA, but I guess Carney figures it’s worthwhile overall?

twoodfin: It’s highly impractical to import cars less than 25 years old into the US for anything beyond “show & display” licensing, and that’s only for select models.Modifying them to meet US safety standards and then getting them approved is arduous and expensive, especially if there’s no comparable US model to emulate / borrow parts.

drstewart: It's how Europe falls behind, you mean.Why do they always get left out of the comparisons? Because they're so far behind anything it would be an insult to include them?

tantalor: https://archive.is/Xp40l

skippyboxedhero: China's low level of corruption wins again

renewiltord: For the majority of Americans, “the US falling behind” is not something they care about. The principal thing they care about is not whether the whole is ruined but whether they have an appropriate portion.An American would prefer that a field make 1 unit of rice if everyone got 1/n units. This is different from cultures where the preference is that you maximize your wellbeing (older America) so that if someone could figure out how to make the field make 10 units of rice, it’s okay if he makes 8 units and everyone else gets 2/n units.The modern American cultural optimum aims to minimize |x_i - x_j| while growth cultures attempt to maximize x_i. An ironic reversal of roles.

BLKNSLVR: What are the requirements of vehicles that drive across the border, like if a Canadian family is holidaying in Buffalo?If they're driving a BYD, do they get stopped at the border?What if they sold their BYD to a US family? Can it be registered and insured? I'd guess not, therefore it wouldn't get bought by a US resident in the first place.

est: > citizens that accept surveilence and lack of privacycitizens had no choice.

Tade0: I have a feeling that half the reason they're doing this is that they don't have a good idea how to increase energy efficiency.Case in point:2026 BMW i3 - 900km WLTP from a 108kWh battery.2026 Denza Z9 GT - 800km WLTP from a 122kWh pack.The former charges at a maximum of 400kW, while the latter at over twice that which saves... about 10 minutes at the charger after 450km of driving(12 vs 22 minutes approx).Many such examples with Chinese manufacturers putting 700kg battery packs into the vehicles just to be able to say it's this and that kWh.I don't know about anyone here but after 400km or so I'm done and want to at least stretch my legs.

SirFatty: You should listen to less Chinese propaganda, comrade.

hshdhdhj4444: The Chinese are selling their EVs all over the world.There are credible American auto enthusiasts that have got these cars and have been using them in the. US.The superiority of Chinese EVs isn’t propaganda.The gas pumps maybe are just a ruse but we know they are operating in China since unlike the US auto industry the Chinese one is incredibly competitive so if BYD was lying about their gas pumps the nearly 100 other competitors would have called them out

raddan: Many are made in Canada [1]. I remember traveling to Quebec in the early 2000s and being surprised to see more people driving Fords than back home in the US.I suspect part of BYD’s strategy is to get a foothold in the North American free trade zone. Maybe they won’t be able to export to the US at first. But if I recall correctly, an import US legal principle is that laws/tariffs cannot discriminate against a single company (excluding for national security). So BYD will simply iterate toward a design that satisfies US regulators. I am not familiar with Canadian safety regulations but I would be surprised if they were dramatically different. Unless American car manufacturers can find it in their hearts to sell an affordable car, this is an existential threat.[1] https://www.guideautoweb.com/en/articles/76684/all-the-vehic...

christkv: Absolute garbage. Just stop and think for one second what kind of power delivery is required to do this and you will quickly realize that’s it’s not feasible anywhere other than as a demo.

lima: They use a buffer battery, it's quite feasible with that.

tjoff: Feels like such a waste for marginal gains?With the range as good as a modern EV the charge time already isn't a particularly that bad. I'd much prefer more chargers (so that you can combine charging with something else you were going to do anyway) than faster ones.

nneonneo: Based on the figures here, they’re claiming around 400 miles of range added in 300 seconds (60% of the full 677 mile range); contrast this with around 100 seconds for a typical gas pump (8 gal/min) and typical efficiency (30 mpg). It suggests that you’d need around 5MW chargers to truly get to the speed of a gas pump.On the other hand, 5 minutes is already a huge improvement over 15-30 minutes, and it’s fast enough to remove much of the friction of recharging an EV.Really wish this kind of tech would come to North America…

_fizz_buzz_: 5mins is really as good as it has to be. Almost everyone needs a bathroom break or gets a drink/snack after 400miles.

s369610: looks like they are aiming for 20,000 this year and already have 4,239 "In the first two months of this year alone, BYD has already completed 4,239 charging stations" https://carnewschina.com/2026/03/05/byd-unveils-blade-batter...

ekr: Although the thought of getting an electric car has passed through my mind on a few occasions, I'm not 100% familiar with the intricate technical details. (for some reason, the tax incentives where I live are still in favor of continuing with the small petrol car I have. Taxes are primarily a function of weight in the Netherlands, and anything besides a lightweight Dacia Spring would imply significantly higher monthly expenditure for me).What I'm wondering w.r.t. this article is: wouldn't such fast charging shorten the battery lifespan?I have experience with ebike batteries. Bosch in particular, with very decent 29E samsung cells, that after 70k km or so, basically halved their capacity. I imagine this effect is severily reduced with a car battery because there are a lot more than 10p, so all the wear is distributed more evenly, and 29E are very old technology.

phatfish: Maybe, but BMW are at least trying. https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/electric-cars/electric-3-...At least the Chinese tech will be available to European consumers, nothing says insecure like pretending a competitor doesn't exist.

pimlottc: Neither article really explains how they are able to charge this fast, aside from “vertical integration” and slightly increased energy density in the battery design. No real details on the charging technology itself.

_fizz_buzz_: Sounds like the trick is to use 1.5MW chargers. I guess that'll do it. I suppose the question is how they handel this thermally.

functionmouse: How foolish it must feel to buy a new car without this tech in a world that has this tech, only to fund the people spending our tax money to keep it from us and continue pushing fossil fuels.

stanski: I may be in the market for a new car soon, which I hope to keep for at least a decade, so this kind of thing bothers me. I don't want to buy something that's already years behind on efficiency.

hshdhdhj4444: Biden’s banning them was not a good decision IMO.At the same time, he was encouraging domestics manufacturers to start building their own EVs out, which opened up the possibility of unbanning, with reasonable import duties, once the American companies were competitive.However, right now we are pushing American companies to go in the opposite direction and dismantle their EV efforts.

jmyeet: China is what happens when you put scientists and engineers in charge [1][2].20 years ago China had a single high speed rail link in Shanghai going to the airport. Now they have more than 30,000 miles of high speed rail where they've bootstrapped all the civil engineering, they make their own trains, etc. The system handles over 4 billion trips annually and they built the entire thing for an estimated $900 billion [3], which is now less than the US spends on the military in a single year.Every $1 you spend on the military is $1 you don't spend on housing, healthcare, education, roads, trains and other infrastructure. Eisenhower warned about this 60+ years ago [4].[1]: https://en.clickpetroleoegas.com.br/All-of-China%27s-preside...[2]: https://www.economist.com/china/2023/03/09/many-of-chinas-to...[3]: https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/2152581/huge-668bn-high...[4]: https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-dwigh...

raw_anon_1111: On a semi related note, military leaders in the US have been warning about the dangers of the American deficit and have a long history of trying to cut waste by getting rid of weapons programs and military bases they don’t need but are constantly blocked by the civilian leadership in Congress because of the job loss.

raddan: I tend to agree but I think the strategy here is to convert people who stubbornly cling to gas vehicles because EVs somehow defy their expectations. I have been approached many times at highway rest stops by people who are curious and slightly skeptical about the EV value proposition. They see me hanging around the vehicle for a half hour and think “ugh, no thanks” as if that’s all I do when I travel. What they’re not seeing is that I rarely use public chargers at all, because 99% of my charging is done either at home or at the charger in the parking lot at work. It’s really just road trips. Not to mention, if you’re an ICE owner hanging around long enough at a rest stops to notice that I’m hanging around, are you really that much faster on a road trip?!!Back on topic, I am ok with losing a little efficiency in the fast charging process if it means that more people switch away from a horribly inefficient and polluting technology.

hshdhdhj4444: America has a genuinely crazy side.No other country in the world has anything like the Republicans in the US, who are the only major political party in the world to oppose the existence of man made climate change.There may be political parties in the rest of the world that say that the cost of tackling climate change is too high, but they don’t dispute the factual reality of it.The Republicans were in this position between about 2008 and 2014 when their leaders were McCain and Romney, but Romney’s lack of insanity inspired a massive backlash within the crazy part of American society that then made Donald Trump their primary winner in 2016 as a repudiation to the not completely insane Republican leadership.I know HN loves to pretend that the Republicans and the Democrats are just two sides of the same coin, but this can be shown to be objectively false by comparing to political parties abroad. Democrats are a normal European center left to center right party with all the flaws that brings with them.The Republicans are now a party of insanity.

duskdozer: How much more surveillance and lack of privacy is there than the US? The US also has- surveilled cities and less dense places through doorbell cams - surveilled digital communications - social credit scores (try getting a bank account if you've opted out of things like lexisnexis etc)

shaneos: Citizens always have a choice. The cost can be terrible, but there’s always a choice

raw_anon_1111: What is that “choice”? Surely you aren’t like those yokels in the south that think a “militia” running in the woods can take on the the US military or even a decent SWAT force

Toutouxc: I believe you meant to write “10S” instead of 10p. I’m not 100% sure, but you were talking about e-bike batteries, which are often 36V, made out of 10 cells (or banks of cells) in series. The nominal voltage of most lithium chemistries is 3.6-3.7V.EV batteries have many more cells in series, for example my car is 104S, and 800V cars have (obviously) more than 200 cells in series.And the longevity of car batteries isn’t about wear being distributed “evenly” (a healthy battery can’t really wear “unevenly”, you always load all cells at once). EVs take care of their batteries, they cool them, heat them, balance them periodically, and they don’t actually pull that much power from them. They also keep the cells within pretty conservative voltage limits.

giwook: > citizens that accept surveilence and lack of privacyIt's certainly not to China's extent, but is America really that opposed to surveillance and lack of privacy?Yes, we tend to raise a huge stink when evidence of such comes to the surface.But actions speak louder than words, and through our actions we already largely accept surveillance and a lack of privacy.Everyday consumer apps are some of the worst offenders. Our social media apps listen to us, Amazon Ring doorbells are allegedly accessed by ICE (though Amazon denies it), Flock cameras abound (not to mention the fact they're poorly secured so who knows who else is watching other than the municipalities Flock contracts with), companies own much of our data and sell them to myriad unknown sources on a whim. There are too many examples to list.No, it's not as severe as China. But we're certainly not trending in the right direction.

himata4113: The american government pretends to care, but the moment you look deeper (snowden leaks), it's clear that they don't. But the fact still stands, the population is mostly against surveilance while chinese just keep their head down.

pjc50: China still has capital controls, so the RMB cannot be a world currency when you can't freely move it in and out of China.

himata4113: doesn't change the fact that their next 'plan' will likely include expanding yuan influnce across the world.

taking an existing fast charger with 150- or 350-kW capacity and swapping in the latest and greatest 1,500-kW chargers wouldn’t get anyone faster speeds. The system would need all new “pipes”—grid capacity—to actually move that much current.

orbital-decay: >Just taking an existing fast charger with 150- or 350-kW capacity and swapping in the latest and greatest 1,500-kW chargers wouldn’t get anyone faster speeds. The system would need all new “pipes”—grid capacity—to actually move that much current.The grid doesn't necessarily mean "pipes" or power lines. You don't build a pipeline to every gas station. Mobile charging robots work pretty well in China.