Can EV Batteries Be Charged Quicker Than Refuelling Stops?

The transition from petrol and diesel cars to electric vehicles requires the work of the entire supply chain, from suppliers of raw materials for the electronics to an entire network of charging stations and garages with people who can work on the cars.

From a manufacturing standpoint, there are two interlocking fields that are working to help relieve the practical concerns that have affected the adoption of electric cars.

One of the most fascinating recent developments in this field was the announcement by Chinese manufacturer Build Your Dreams (BYD) of a charging station that can offer nearly 250 miles of range in five minutes of charging.

This is over twice the range per five minutes of the Lucid Air, the fastest charging American production car, and the Porsche Taycan 4S, which uses existing fast charging infrastructure to add around 65 miles of range in the same time.

This has been credited as a game changer in the market, but why is this the case? Why is the five minute charge so important?

The Holy Grail

The five minute charging stop has been a highly publicised goal for manufacturers for several years, with the concept even described as “the holy grail” of electric vehicle technological achievements.

The BYD Super E-Platform is technically not the first EV technology to charge a car in less than five minutes; in 2024 the BBC reported that a bespoke sports car achieved a charging time from ten per cent to 80 percent of just four minutes, 37 seconds.

However, the Nyobolt had a much smaller capacity battery, with the record-breaking charge providing roughly half the range promised by the BYD platform.

Regardless, the principle is important because part of the reason for range anxiety is the idea that it takes a lot of waiting for an EV’s battery to charge to an appropriate range to get home.

In practice, as the AA has reported in the past, breakdowns caused by a lack of charge are exceptionally uncommon; in 2024, less than two per cent of breakdowns were caused by batteries running out of charge.

When Will People Benefit?

One complication with the new platform is that it requires new charging stations and electrical infrastructure, both of which are likely to only be found in China when the “flash-charge” technology is introduced in April.

Whilst the use of battery storage for the chargers means that they will require fewer connections to the National Grid and thus lead to a quicker rollout, no announcement has currently been made as of yet for when the new battery technology will leave China.

However, the announcement alone has already had huge consequences for the EV industry and all of the elements that make up its supply chain.

The Balance Of Power

Companies like BYD had successfully found a foothold in the public transport market but up until recently had issues with brand recognition. This has started to rapidly change with widely publicised technological announcements and somewhat notable failures from European and American rivals.

The tragedy of Northvolt benefitted battery manufacturers in China and South Korea, who picked up the orders for significant numbers of batteries, but the biggest shift came from the complacency of the biggest operators in the field.

From the early 2010s up until 2024, the car brand Tesla was the world’s leading electric vehicle manufacturer, but the centre of EV innovation and manufacturing had been slowly shifting since 2019 increasingly towards manufacturers based in South Korea and China.

Tesla’s constant delays, shifts in focus, and the severe damage to the brand caused by the infamous release of the Cybertruck and the actions of the company’s most prominent public facing figure has caused registrations of new models to drop significantly.

Alongside this, Tesla’s lack of development focus on new models has caused customers who previously had a brand loyalty comparable to technology companies such as Apple began to switch to alternatives.

Whilst early reports of Tesla’s troubles framed it as an issue for the whole market, the fact that most major EV manufacturers have seen an increase in new vehicle registrations suggests that this is a much more localised issue.

There are still a lot of questions regarding the future of EV batteries and the market as a whole, but the end of range anxiety through higher capacity and faster charging batteries could change the industry and shift perceptions of EVs.

The early 2020s saw EVs reach a point where the market and its infrastructure are self-sustaining and growing at the expense of the petrol and diesel markets, a phenomena that could only increase as fast charging becomes more widely available.