BYD super-e platform and matching chargers

BYD super-e platform and matching chargers

Author
Discussion

tamore

Original Poster:

8,603 posts

296 months

Monday 17th March
quotequote all
https://electrek.co/2025/03/17/byd-confirms-1000v-...

quite a leap really, and makes tesla's V4 chargers look like old hat already!

the pace of progress is incredible. i dnd't think we'd see these figures until closer to 2030.

Edited by tamore on Monday 17th March 16:42

Cristio Nasser

162 posts

5 months

Monday 17th March
quotequote all
Interesting if true, although very light on detail, and why not just go to ‘1200-volts’, which is the next step up electrically from the 400/800V current standards.

1MW delivered at 1000V/1000A delivering approx 85kWh in 5 mins is serious stuff and requires some very big, very hard to handle cables and connectors.

How is it being delivered to the vehicle? 2-wire DC or split across multiple wires/connectors/phases? What car sized EV battery tech is being used that can handle such a charge rate? How do 1MW EVSE’s work/get fed?

Questions, questions!





PetrolHeadInRecovery

238 posts

27 months

Monday 17th March
quotequote all
Interesting!

Found this article with some more details: https://carnewschina.com/2025/03/15/byd-set-to-deb... .

Wondering if this is based on the Chaomi standard: https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1140871_china... The GB/T standard it's aiming to replace seems to already have a specification for 1000Vs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GB/T_charging_standard#Charging_modes), Chaomi would increase the amperage quite dramatically.

Cristio Nasser

162 posts

5 months

Monday 17th March
quotequote all
PetrolHeadInRecovery said:
Interesting!

Found this article with some more details: https://carnewschina.com/2025/03/15/byd-set-to-deb... .

Wondering if this is based on the Chaomi standard: https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1140871_china... The GB/T standard it's aiming to replace seems to already have a specification for 1000Vs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GB/T_charging_standard#Charging_modes), Chaomi would increase the amperage quite dramatically.
So 2 plugs and batteries able to take a 6C charge rate.

ChocolateFrog

30,633 posts

185 months

Monday 17th March
quotequote all
Seems a tad overkill. Half that would still give a 80% charge quicker than you could go for a wee and a quick leg stretch.

PetrolHeadInRecovery

238 posts

27 months

Monday 17th March
quotequote all
ChocolateFrog said:
Seems a tad overkill. Half that would still give a 80% charge quicker than you could go for a wee and a quick leg stretch.
Faster than necessary in the real life, but probably helps sell the cars and increases the revenue/profit potential of the charger.

Makes me wonder what is the average time ICE cars use at the stations. You don't have the plug-n-fill functionality, so you need a separate steps for payment (with PIN codes and behind the scenes calls to the credit card company) and the actual fill-up (grab the hose, open the filler cap, fill your lungs with carcinogens for a minute or two, close the cap, return the hose). If you want the receipt, I think you might end up spending the same five minutes a typical charge on an 800kW charger would take.

Edited by PetrolHeadInRecovery on Monday 17th March 21:45

TheDeuce

26,942 posts

78 months

Monday 17th March
quotequote all
PetrolHeadInRecovery said:
ChocolateFrog said:
Seems a tad overkill. Half that would still give a 80% charge quicker than you could go for a wee and a quick leg stretch.
Faster than necessary in the real life, but probably helps sell the cars and increases the revenue/profit potential of the charger.

Makes me wonder what is the average time ICE cars use at the stations. You don't have the plug-n-fill functionality, so you need a separate steps for payment (with PIN codes and behind the scenes calls to the credit card company) and the actual fill-up (grab the hose, open the filler cap, fill your lungs with carcinogens for a minute or two, close the cap, return the hose). If you want the receipt, I think you might end up spending the same five minutes a typical charge on an 800kW charger would take.

Edited by PetrolHeadInRecovery on Monday 17th March 21:45
I can confidently say that since switching to EV 5 years ago, I don't spend anymore time stopping on longer journeys than I did in the 430D I had before then. I still need a coffee/piss/lunch which allows enough time to charge even at today's commonplace charger speeds.

The only difference is that I now never have to waste time filling up for the day to day shorter journeys.

I can't see how these crazy fast charging speeds make sense. Only a tiny % of people are really in that much of a hurry during a 300 mile+ journey, and those people alone are going to pay for such expensive chargers? Wouldn't it be far more useful and profitable to just install several 150kw chargers which are more than fast enough for the other 99% of EV drivers?

I would say this is an example of solving a problem that doesn't exist - but perhaps the problem it solves does exist, at least in the minds of those who don't currently drive an EV and fear for the day when they're pushed into driving one. These people won't be open minded about the tech until they're told an electric car fills up as quickly as a 'normal' car, so I suppose in a sense that problem is solved by waaaaaaay overpowered and generally impractical high speed charging tech.

gmaz

4,789 posts

222 months

Tuesday 18th March
quotequote all
TheDeuce said:
I can confidently say that since switching to EV 5 years ago, I don't spend anymore time stopping on longer journeys than I did in the 430D I had before then. I still need a coffee/piss/lunch which allows enough time to charge even at today's commonplace charger speeds.

The only difference is that I now never have to waste time filling up for the day to day shorter journeys.

I can't see how these crazy fast charging speeds make sense. Only a tiny % of people are really in that much of a hurry during a 300 mile+ journey, and those people alone are going to pay for such expensive chargers? Wouldn't it be far more useful and profitable to just install several 150kw chargers which are more than fast enough for the other 99% of EV drivers?

I would say this is an example of solving a problem that doesn't exist - but perhaps the problem it solves does exist, at least in the minds of those who don't currently drive an EV and fear for the day when they're pushed into driving one. These people won't be open minded about the tech until they're told an electric car fills up as quickly as a 'normal' car, so I suppose in a sense that problem is solved by waaaaaaay overpowered and generally impractical high speed charging tech.
I think that the only problem it solves is to maximise throughput at busy sites, so less queuing time when the site is at capacity. But having been an EV driver for 4 years and only had to queue once then again it is solution for a minor problem.

ChocolateFrog

30,633 posts

185 months

Tuesday 18th March
quotequote all
Would make sense for larger commercial vehicles if they ever make the switch from diesel.

tamore

Original Poster:

8,603 posts

296 months

Tuesday 18th March
quotequote all
ChocolateFrog said:
Would make sense for larger commercial vehicles if they ever make the switch from diesel.
they are the ones who have to stop for extended periods though.

what it would do is knock the 'what about those without driveways' argument over. like for like 'fuelling' time.

PetrolHeadInRecovery

238 posts

27 months

Tuesday 18th March
quotequote all
tamore said:
ChocolateFrog said:
Would make sense for larger commercial vehicles if they ever make the switch from diesel.
they are the ones who have to stop for extended periods though.

what it would do is knock the 'what about those without driveways' argument over. like for like 'fuelling' time.
I think trucks will (eventually) use the Megawatt Charging system that is being deployed, e.g., in Finland: https://thedriven.io/2024/04/05/charge-an-electric... The standard could support up to 3.75MW power: https://www.charin.global/technology/mcs/ - probably "too fast" for an individual driver, but if you can swap crews the truck can keep on moving most of the day.

It seems that in the Nordic countries the move is well on its way, probably due to low price of electricity. At under 0.10€/kWh for commercial users in Finland the "fuel" costs would seem to be about one-third of the Guinness record truck (about 20l/100km). Seems this winter, they started to gather experiences from a real edge case: https://www.sca.com/en/media/news/2024/new-electri... (heavy loads, cold, uneven terrain,...).

ashenfie

1,045 posts

58 months

Tuesday 18th March
quotequote all
TheDeuce said:
PetrolHeadInRecovery said:
ChocolateFrog said:
Seems a tad overkill. Half that would still give a 80% charge quicker than you could go for a wee and a quick leg stretch.
Faster than necessary in the real life, but probably helps sell the cars and increases the revenue/profit potential of the charger.

Makes me wonder what is the average time ICE cars use at the stations. You don't have the plug-n-fill functionality, so you need a separate steps for payment (with PIN codes and behind the scenes calls to the credit card company) and the actual fill-up (grab the hose, open the filler cap, fill your lungs with carcinogens for a minute or two, close the cap, return the hose). If you want the receipt, I think you might end up spending the same five minutes a typical charge on an 800kW charger would take.

Edited by PetrolHeadInRecovery on Monday 17th March 21:45
I can confidently say that since switching to EV 5 years ago, I don't spend anymore time stopping on longer journeys than I did in the 430D I had before then. I still need a coffee/piss/lunch which allows enough time to charge even at today's commonplace charger speeds.

The only difference is that I now never have to waste time filling up for the day to day shorter journeys.

I can't see how these crazy fast charging speeds make sense. Only a tiny % of people are really in that much of a hurry during a 300 mile+ journey, and those people alone are going to pay for such expensive chargers? Wouldn't it be far more useful and profitable to just install several 150kw chargers which are more than fast enough for the other 99% of EV drivers?

I would say this is an example of solving a problem that doesn't exist - but perhaps the problem it solves does exist, at least in the minds of those who don't currently drive an EV and fear for the day when they're pushed into driving one. These people won't be open minded about the tech until they're told an electric car fills up as quickly as a 'normal' car, so I suppose in a sense that problem is solved by waaaaaaay overpowered and generally impractical high speed charging tech.
Im not why you think it’s a problem that does not exist when using public chargers. Most of don’t need to stop for a wee every five mins or want to buy anything from a service station. Ive used a motorway service stations only in absolute emergency as prices are a joke. If byd can get 272km from a 5min charge it’s a bit of a game changer. Takes the planning and inconvenience out of long trips.

Du1point8

21,809 posts

204 months

Tuesday 18th March
quotequote all
PetrolHeadInRecovery said:
tamore said:
ChocolateFrog said:
Would make sense for larger commercial vehicles if they ever make the switch from diesel.
they are the ones who have to stop for extended periods though.

what it would do is knock the 'what about those without driveways' argument over. like for like 'fuelling' time.
I think trucks will (eventually) use the Megawatt Charging system that is being deployed, e.g., in Finland: https://thedriven.io/2024/04/05/charge-an-electric... The standard could support up to 3.75MW power: https://www.charin.global/technology/mcs/ - probably "too fast" for an individual driver, but if you can swap crews the truck can keep on moving most of the day.

It seems that in the Nordic countries the move is well on its way, probably due to low price of electricity. At under 0.10€/kWh for commercial users in Finland the "fuel" costs would seem to be about one-third of the Guinness record truck (about 20l/100km). Seems this winter, they started to gather experiences from a real edge case: https://www.sca.com/en/media/news/2024/new-electri... (heavy loads, cold, uneven terrain,...).
You sure about that?

A truck would need batteries weighing like 8 tonnes or so (16k lbs) and so if you made a truck stop for say 30-50 trucks, that would be a draw of something in excess of 6 Megawatts, whereas the factory creating the trucks is only 2 Megawatts and average town (10k homes) is what... 4-5MW... and we would quite a few of them all over the UK, so how is the infrastructure going to be upgraded that much that we can have several of these in specific locations, its like you would need an SMR next to it to be able to cope with the draw.

Places like the US/Aus have it even worse, but I dont see larger vehicles moving over yet.

gmaz

4,789 posts

222 months

Tuesday 18th March
quotequote all
ashenfie said:
Most of don’t need to stop for a wee every five mins or want to buy anything from a service station.
Most don't need to stop to charge every five mins either. A full charge is 4-5 hours of driving in many EVs

DMZ

1,653 posts

172 months

Tuesday 18th March
quotequote all
It’s not about current EV drivers, it’s about the other people and use cases. Obviously the current setup work for some/me.

PetrolHeadInRecovery

238 posts

27 months

Tuesday 18th March
quotequote all
Du1point8 said:
PetrolHeadInRecovery said:
tamore said:
ChocolateFrog said:
Would make sense for larger commercial vehicles if they ever make the switch from diesel.
they are the ones who have to stop for extended periods though.

what it would do is knock the 'what about those without driveways' argument over. like for like 'fuelling' time.
I think trucks will (eventually) use the Megawatt Charging system that is being deployed, e.g., in Finland: https://thedriven.io/2024/04/05/charge-an-electric... The standard could support up to 3.75MW power: https://www.charin.global/technology/mcs/ - probably "too fast" for an individual driver, but if you can swap crews the truck can keep on moving most of the day.

It seems that in the Nordic countries the move is well on its way, probably due to low price of electricity. At under 0.10€/kWh for commercial users in Finland the "fuel" costs would seem to be about one-third of the Guinness record truck (about 20l/100km). Seems this winter, they started to gather experiences from a real edge case: https://www.sca.com/en/media/news/2024/new-electri... (heavy loads, cold, uneven terrain,...).
You sure about that?

A truck would need batteries weighing like 8 tonnes or so (16k lbs) and so if you made a truck stop for say 30-50 trucks, that would be a draw of something in excess of 6 Megawatts, whereas the factory creating the trucks is only 2 Megawatts and average town (10k homes) is what... 4-5MW... and we would quite a few of them all over the UK, so how is the infrastructure going to be upgraded that much that we can have several of these in specific locations, its like you would need an SMR next to it to be able to cope with the draw.

Places like the US/Aus have it even worse, but I dont see larger vehicles moving over yet.
I'm sure there are small-scale, niche areas where electric trucks are already in routine use, for example (running since late 2023, it seems): https://www.fazergroup.com/media/news-page/?id=459...

MB eActros 600 (22-ton semi-trailer - capacity limited by EU regulations) seems to have three battery packs, a total of 4,5 tons and 621kW (based on a quick search). LFP, so optimised for longevity and low(er) cost, it seems.

Heavier ones seem to be in operation, too: https://www.dbschenker.com/ch-en/insights/news-and...

I know next to nothing about UK infrastructure, but I would assume local battery buffering could make sense (like ABB does with its 600kW flash charging stations for buses that can be hooked into standard medium voltage grid connection). Power availability might be less of an issue in the Nordic countries since they seem to attract computing centres in the hundreds of MW category (cheap electricity, less of it spent cooling, heat can be used for district heating,...).

The examples so far seem to be from companies serving predictable, standard routes. I'm not sure if the stations would be open to anyone driving in with an electric truck. Although if they're covered by the same regulation that requires contactless credit card payment option...

The US might be especially difficult, but nevertheless, pilot efforts have been announced: https://www.maersk.com/news/articles/2022/03/29/ma...

ashenfie

1,045 posts

58 months

Tuesday 18th March
quotequote all
gmaz said:
ashenfie said:
Most of don’t need to stop for a wee every five mins or want to buy anything from a service station.
Most don't need to stop to charge every five mins either. A full charge is 4-5 hours of driving in many EVs
Only if your doing 35mph. Most of on the motorway are doing 70mph and that is going to be around every 2hours

gmaz

4,789 posts

222 months

Tuesday 18th March
quotequote all
ashenfie said:
gmaz said:
ashenfie said:
Most of don’t need to stop for a wee every five mins or want to buy anything from a service station.
Most don't need to stop to charge every five mins either. A full charge is 4-5 hours of driving in many EVs
Only if your doing 35mph. Most of on the motorway are doing 70mph and that is going to be around every 2hours
I do about 20K miles a year mainly on motorways driving at 70 where I can, but roadworks, crashes, "smart" motorways, heavy traffic at junctions etc mean my average is about 54 mph. My EV easily has a range of 250 miles.

LeeM135i

709 posts

66 months

Tuesday 18th March
quotequote all
ashenfie said:
gmaz said:
ashenfie said:
Most of don’t need to stop for a wee every five mins or want to buy anything from a service station.
Most don't need to stop to charge every five mins either. A full charge is 4-5 hours of driving in many EVs
Only if your doing 35mph. Most of on the motorway are doing 70mph and that is going to be around every 2hours
Sorry to disagree but it's not.

I travel a lot for work in my EV and ave motorway speeds are under 50mph, over the last 3000 miles my ave speed has been 44mph.

At 70mph my Polestar 2 Long Range Duel Motor Performance uses 30kwh per 100 miles and has a 84kw battery so nearly 3 hours.
At an ave speed of 44mph it's more like 5 hours.

Currently charge at home overnight so have a full battery in the morning, on days where I travel more than 250 miles I will stop and charge at a fast charger at the side of the road. Usually get around 54kw from a 30 min charge. At 70mph that's another 2 hours driving, at 44mph it's easily another 3 hours.

As soon as you plug in you are charging, walk in, take a pee, check phone messages, grab a coffee and walk back to the car is 30mins. I need to stop every 2.5 hours for a pee and to answer messages/emails/home/work chaos.

My fully charged EV can drive from SE London to Leeds without charging at a cost of £7 or SE London to Newton Abbot without charging at a cost of £7 or SE London to Edinburgh with 1x30min stop at a cost of £27, its 437 miles and over 8 hours to drive, you could stop for 2x15min charges or 3x10min charges or 4x7min charges depending on bladder, caffeine, hunger, boredom levels.

I don't need to stop and charge the car on my usual Leeds or Newton Abbot runs as there are free chargers at both offices or paid chargers at the hotels I stay in. I do however need a comfort break during the 4.5hour 260mile journey.

It does take a different school of thought to drive an EV but personally as someone who covers over 2,000 miles a month it's been painless.

Du1point8

21,809 posts

204 months

Tuesday 18th March
quotequote all
PetrolHeadInRecovery said:
Du1point8 said:
PetrolHeadInRecovery said:
tamore said:
ChocolateFrog said:
Would make sense for larger commercial vehicles if they ever make the switch from diesel.
they are the ones who have to stop for extended periods though.

what it would do is knock the 'what about those without driveways' argument over. like for like 'fuelling' time.
I think trucks will (eventually) use the Megawatt Charging system that is being deployed, e.g., in Finland: https://thedriven.io/2024/04/05/charge-an-electric... The standard could support up to 3.75MW power: https://www.charin.global/technology/mcs/ - probably "too fast" for an individual driver, but if you can swap crews the truck can keep on moving most of the day.

It seems that in the Nordic countries the move is well on its way, probably due to low price of electricity. At under 0.10€/kWh for commercial users in Finland the "fuel" costs would seem to be about one-third of the Guinness record truck (about 20l/100km). Seems this winter, they started to gather experiences from a real edge case: https://www.sca.com/en/media/news/2024/new-electri... (heavy loads, cold, uneven terrain,...).
You sure about that?

A truck would need batteries weighing like 8 tonnes or so (16k lbs) and so if you made a truck stop for say 30-50 trucks, that would be a draw of something in excess of 6 Megawatts, whereas the factory creating the trucks is only 2 Megawatts and average town (10k homes) is what... 4-5MW... and we would quite a few of them all over the UK, so how is the infrastructure going to be upgraded that much that we can have several of these in specific locations, its like you would need an SMR next to it to be able to cope with the draw.

Places like the US/Aus have it even worse, but I dont see larger vehicles moving over yet.
I'm sure there are small-scale, niche areas where electric trucks are already in routine use, for example (running since late 2023, it seems): https://www.fazergroup.com/media/news-page/?id=459...

MB eActros 600 (22-ton semi-trailer - capacity limited by EU regulations) seems to have three battery packs, a total of 4,5 tons and 621kW (based on a quick search). LFP, so optimised for longevity and low(er) cost, it seems.

Heavier ones seem to be in operation, too: https://www.dbschenker.com/ch-en/insights/news-and...

I know next to nothing about UK infrastructure, but I would assume local battery buffering could make sense (like ABB does with its 600kW flash charging stations for buses that can be hooked into standard medium voltage grid connection). Power availability might be less of an issue in the Nordic countries since they seem to attract computing centres in the hundreds of MW category (cheap electricity, less of it spent cooling, heat can be used for district heating,...).

The examples so far seem to be from companies serving predictable, standard routes. I'm not sure if the stations would be open to anyone driving in with an electric truck. Although if they're covered by the same regulation that requires contactless credit card payment option...

The US might be especially difficult, but nevertheless, pilot efforts have been announced: https://www.maersk.com/news/articles/2022/03/29/ma...
Small scale could work in Finland (I know the country very well) but with a population verging on 60% of London for the whole place, the drain on the power grids is next to nothing compared to the UK... The same query would come up... HGV in Finland is circa 90k vehicles, in the UK its 600k, where is the infra to be able to power them, and where is the power coming from as UK can barely cover housing and with EV cars its creaking now.

Finland on the other hand is easier to convert, although the temp variation (+30 to -30) I wouldn't think that the batteries are liking that considering not all vehicles are stored out of the weather. I know how difficult our ICE cars are to start when its -10 to 15 without the integrated heater and being stored in the garage in central Finland, also in extreme weather I remember how quickly our batteries dissipated when up near Arctic Circle... The rail network over there is not equipped to suddenly take a load of freight cargo on rail to save the batteries.

I can see it happening at some point, but who is really going to create a few lorry parks to charge them when the cost to create such a part and get the infra ready is going to mean the ROI is ridiculous.