Chinese automaker BYD has become the first in the world to unveil a commercial battery for electric vehicles that is capable of charging in roughly the same amount of time as it takes to fill up a fuel tank. Their new ‘Super E-Platform’ offers 1,000 kW charge speeds, which is four-times quicker than 250 kW charging rates of Tesla Superchargers.
That's all well and good, but they are not available for sale here in the US. You can buy one and import it yourself, but then you'll have to have the car certified safe according to US standards and pay for any required modifications. And then there's the problem of parts and maintainence. Other than that, they're cheap as fuck with some models selling as low as $ 8,000.00 in China. Might cost a coupla bucks more here if and when they're ever made available. Good luck with that...
What do they do to the battery life? I've heard, and don't know if it's true, that fast charging your phone reduces its battery life.
ReplyDeleteI've read the opposite that fast charging is better. It's like medical advice, nobody agrees so you never know whose advice is right.
DeleteWhat's in the large enclosures behind the guy? Betting they're diesel generators in hiding.
ReplyDeleteDamn right. You're not going to pull that kind of power off the grid without some serious issues. Especially as an intermittent load, more especially if you have a half dozen of those chargers lined up. Typical home uses 30 kW/day, or maybe 5 kW/hr peak load. This is 1000kW in 6 minutes....2000 times that rate. The power consumption of a small town, in six minutes, over the dinner hour. PER CHARGER. The power companies have a cow about highly variable, intermittent loads (they don't work with steady generation). They will NOT be happy.
DeleteTo compare prices, it's roughly 100 kW/hr or somewhere in the ballpark of 15-20 bucks for a 250 mile charge. So, yeah, comparable to gas cost assuming you buy grid power; who knows what those diesels cost to run (hint- more than that). So, maybe 40 bucks for a half tank of gas equivalent, with a very expensive car and standalone infrastructure for charging.
Nope. Electric cars still don't pencil out.
I agree with The Donald: "Drill Baby, Drill!"
DeleteYou still face the problem of the quick charging can only happen using a specific charger, and they aren't anywhere near as convenient to find as gas pumps.
ReplyDeleteI would love it if my solar battery would charge that fast. But what about cost? The electric company is going to charge you for kwh no matter, so it doesn't save any money and $8k will buy a lot of gas.
ReplyDeleteChina is asshoe, and claims like this for the media should be considered bunk until the same thing can be demonstrated in the US with independent verification. Car claims it got 300 miles of range in 5 minutes? Start driving on a closed course and we will count how many laps you complete.
ReplyDeleteElon Musk should announce that Tesla already HAS this.
ReplyDeleteThe left therefore will get even madder at him than they already are and will tell him THEY DON'T WANT IT.
If one actually believes any of this...LOL
ReplyDeleteANY claims coming from China must be viewed with great skepticism.
ReplyDeleteAnything coming out of China is likely to be cheap, fragile, and dangerous,. If you go this direction, you better buy the maintenance package, which includes a couple of Chinese techs and a years supply of rice to feed them, their tools and spare parts inventory.
ReplyDeleteSo, will it halt and catch fire like most of the BYD cars are now doing? China has a Quality Control problem, and it all boils down to money - which they tend to maximize instead of value or useability or durability.
ReplyDeleteStay tuned, keep your hand on your wallet. Accept no substitutes. See if it ages well, don't be the first on your block to have that type of battery, let other fools become the "gotta have it first" suckers.
1000KW is more demand than a Walmart or a supersized grocery store. Multiply that demand by 50,000,000 cars. No grid will ever be able to feed that. Wonder what the charging voltage is? Gotta be high, or you couldn't lift the charging cables due to their huge size. We're not talking 120v here....
ReplyDeleteSo if ANY of this is true, whats the likelihood that it also has a very explosive potential, as in literally explosive? I sure wouldn't want to be anywhere near one of these if it decided to let go.
ReplyDelete