Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!
Last Updated on: 17th March 2025, 07:56 pm
If its competitors are hoping BYD will slow down to catch its breath after its stunning sales success of the past few years, they will be disappointed to hear the Shenzhen-based company is planning to start selling electric cars based on its new Super E-platform. What’s so super about Super-E? For starters, it is based on 1,000-volt architecture. At the heart of the new platform are new and improved Blade batteries that support ultra-fast charging, high-performance electric motors, and a new generation of silicon carbide power chips. BYD calls them flash charge batteries because they have a 10C charging rate, the highest of any mass produced traction battery in the world.
The company said it redesigned its Blade batteries to allow faster ion transfer in the electrolyte with less resistance through the diaphragm to achieve the faster charging rate. Introduction of the new architecture will be accompanied by an extensive network of ultra-fast charging stations. BYD will attach energy storage facilities to those ultra-fast charging locations so the 1,000 kW charging power can be reached even in areas with insufficient power capacity. The company’s two flagship models, the Han L and Tang L, will be based on the new platform first. Both were presented in January and have been extensively revised compared to their predecessors.
The C in the charging rate is an indicator of the ratio of battery size to charging capacity. At 1C, an 80 kWh battery can be charged with a maximum of 80 kW. At 4C, the same battery can theoretically be charged with six times the charging capacity, up to 400 kW. The first Chinese electric cars are already being offered with 5C batteries, such as the Li Mega from Li Auto and the current version of the Zeekr 001. Both have batteries from CATL and should theoretically be able to add up to 500 kilometers of range in twelve minutes.
Such fast charging speeds can only be maintained for a short period of time. All EV owners know that charging speed tapers as the battery charge exceeds about 50 percent and gets downright pokey above 80 percent SOC. On March 17, 2025, BYD also announced it had raised billions on the Hong Kong stock exchange, which bodes well for the future of the Chinese automotive giant. The company said it intends to invest the funds in research and development, expand its international business, and increase its working capital, according to Electrive.
The “Super E-platform” will be capable of peak charging speeds of 1,000 kilowatts (kW), enabling cars that use it to travel 400 km (249 miles) on a 5 minute charge, founder Wang Chuanfu said at an event livestreamed from the company’s headquarters on Monday. Charging output of 1,000 kW would be twice as much as Tesla Superchargers offer, the latest version of which offers up to 500 kW of charging power. Fast charging technology has been key to increasing EV adoption, as it is seen to help assure EV drivers’ concerns over being able to charge their cars quickly.
“In order to completely solve our user’s charging anxiety, we have been pursuing a goal to make the charging time of electric vehicles as short as the refueling time of petrol vehicles,” Wang said. This is the first time in the industry that the one megawatt of charging power has been achieved for an electric car. BYD said it would build over 4,000 ultra-fast charging units across China to match the new platform, Reuters reports.
New BYD Electric Motors Complement Fast Charging Battery
BYD also unveiled its new high RPM motor at this week’s event. The motor can spin at speeds up to 30,511 revolutions per minute, making it the first mass produced motor in the world to exceed 30,000 RPM. It has a peak power of up to 580 kW (778 hp), which is also the highest of any mass produced motor in the world and exceeds the performance of a V12 gasoline engine, the company said. The motor has a power density of 16.4 kW/kg, the highest in the industry, according to BYD. Sharp eyed readers will note the new battery electric Mercedes CLA is fitted with a two-speed transmission to maximize efficiency at both low and high speeds. Which arrangement is best is impossible to say, but CleanTechnica is happy to test both over a period of several months and supply both companies with a full report.
To support its new high-power motor, BYD has developed a new generation of silicon carbide power chips with voltage ratings up to 1,500 volts. The Han L EV sedan and Tang L SUV will be the first models based on BYD’s Super E-platform and both are available for pre-order in China today. The price range for the Han L EV is RMB 270,000 ($37,330) to RMB 350,000, while the Tang L EV starts at RMB 280,000 to RMB 360,000. Both models boast strong performance, with the Han L EV accelerating from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour in 2.7 seconds and the Tang L EV in 3.6 seconds. Both are also equipped with the BYD God’s Eye B smart driving system, with hardware including a roof-mounted Lidar.
God’s Eye C, the lowest level of the new technology package, utilizes “12 cameras, 5 mm-wave radars, and 12 ultrasonic radars. Those 12 cameras consist of 3 front view cameras, 5 panoramic cameras, and 4 surround view cameras. Five mm-wave radars provide 360 degree non-dead angle perception and the front radar has a detection distance of 300 meters. The accuracy of the 12 ultrasonic radar sensors is 1 cm, while the parking accuracy is 2 cm.” It is now standard equipment on the BYD Seagull, a battery-electric hatchback that sells in China for less than $10,000. God’s Eye C averages over 1,000 km of autonomous driving between human interventions, which is already better than what Tesla claims for its FSD system. BYD’s low-end system can also valet park without a driver.
God’s Eye B adds Lidar to the technology package and is Level 3 capable for highway driving. It has been tested on real roads for more than a year and has driven across China with no human intervention in testing using a BYD Denza sedan. This system is included on vehicles priced in line with Teslas. Denza is a premium brand that began as a joint venture between BYD and Mercedes-Benz. God’s Eye A has three LiDAR sensors and is Level 3 highway and city capable. With regulatory approval, many observers in China believe that system is Level 4 capable at the present time.
The question that should be on everyone’s lips is, how is Tesla going to compete with BYD? It is building five-year-old models with dated technology while BYD is offering its customers cutting edge technology in freshly designed vehicles and doing it for less money. Tesla can hide behind tariff walls in the US and the EU, but in China it has to go head to head with the best the Chinese auto industry can offer. BYD says it has 150,000 engineers doing basic research on batteries, electric motors, and computer systems while Tesla is focused on improving the efficiency of its factories so it can build the same old stuff more cheaply. Which company do you think has the best chance of long term success?
Chip in a few dollars a month to help support independent cleantech coverage that helps to accelerate the cleantech revolution!
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Sign up for our daily newsletter for 15 new cleantech stories a day. Or sign up for our weekly one if daily is too frequent.
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
CleanTechnica’s Comment Policy
