Chinese car manufacturer Byd made waves this week when he announced that his new Han L sedan could add up to 248 miles of range as little as five minutes.
Unfortunately, the company was light on the details and did not respond to the clarification request for Techcrunch. So, instead, we have traveled the web to get information, by filling the gaps to determine exactly how byd was able to make an EV which can apparently recharge as quickly as you need to fill a gas car.
What we found mainly supports the assertions of car manufacturers, with some warnings.
Battery package
Central of the fast load of Han L, its internal electrical infrastructure. He starts with the battery, which according to In Carnewschina, citing regulatory documents, there is a pack of 83.2 kWh at Lithium-Fer-Phosphate (LFP) which operates at 945 volts. (In its marketing media, the company seems to have gathered and lists it at 1,000 volts).
Battery chemistry is probably at the heart of the car’s rapid loading capacity. LFP batteries have long been considered for their stability and safety; They do not take fire almost as easily as other types such as nickel manganese cobalt (NMC). They can also load faster due to certain electrochemical quirks inherent in the design of anode cathode of an LFP cell. (There is a big slide of the National Laboratory of Renewable Energies which explains why in more detail.)
To top it off, byd has been working with LFP for years, and its last battery architecture, known as Blade 2.0, should make its debut in the new car. This experience probably gave the company engineers a good idea of ​​the distance to which they can push batteries and electrical architecture.
Electrical system
Battery supply is a high voltage electrical system that works at 945 volts. Motor manufacturers have continued increasingly high tensions because higher tensions generate less heat, allowing more power to be delivered safely and effectively. Currently, Lucid manages an architecture of 900 volts in its cars, and several others like Hyundai Kia and Porsche operate 800 volts in many of them. With Teslas, it depends on the vehicle: the cybertruck uses an architecture of 800 volts while the rest operates at around 400 volts, gives or takes, depending on the model.
Add everything and the Han L can charge up to 1 megawatt, or 1,000 kilowatts. The fastest EV chargers available in the United States today only deliver 350 kilowatts.
But even when it operates at 945 volts or 1,000 volts, the amount of heat generated by a load of 1 megawatt is important, and the cables to be supported should be incredibly thick. Even slower, rapid and loaded cables like those attached to 350 kW of chargers are wrapped in liquid cooling, further increasing their bulk.
Perhaps in an effort to make the load cables more manageable, Byd adopted what he calls a double pistol approach: the car has two load ports, each being able to connect simultaneously to a 500 kW charger.
Together, they deliver 1 megawatt.
Range of the range
According to Byd, this allows the car to add 248 miles of range (400 km) in five minutes.
Unfortunately, it is unlikely that drivers travel so far after such a fast load. Indeed, the Chinese equivalent of the EPA test cycle, the CLTC, is notoriously optimistic. It is around 35% higher than EPA notes, according to In Insidevs, which are themselves perfect or optimistic depending on the quantity of driving on the highway involved.
Recordedly, drivers can probably expect around 160 miles of range of a five -minute load and around 280 miles from a full battery. For a comparison of apples with apples, it is useful to see how long it takes to charge from 16% to 80% (10 minutes) or from 16% to 100% (24 minutes). No matter how you cut it, it’s pretty fast.
Load strategy
But the load speed of an EV is as good as the loaders and their width available. To this end, Byd undertakes to install more than 4,000 throughout China. Each charging station will require significant upgrades on the grid, however, because a power draw of 1 megawatt would probably extend the existing infrastructure.
When will we see that in the United States? Do not rely on the possibility of buying a han l of soon, even if the starting price of around $ 37,000 would offer the market a welcome shock. Chinese electric manufacturing vehicles are currently subject to a 100%rate, increasing prices to the point where they are not competitive.
But that does not mean that the fast load will remain out of reach for Americans. Cars for sale today can already charge 20 to 80% in 18 minutes, so it is only a matter of time before car manufacturers reduce these times.
