- Geely claims its latest batteries charge faster than BYD’s mk2 Blades.
- Energee Golden Brick charges from 10-70 % in just 4 minutes 22 secs.
- BMW warns extreme charging speeds could bring durability trade-offs.
Forget zero to 60 mph (97 kmh) times, the EV world has a new kind of electric performance battleground and China’s Geely just claimed top honors. It says its new batteries can charge even faster than the BYD batteries that sent us into a spin last month with their crazy top-up times.
Geely’s Lynk and Co brand says its latest 95 kWh battery – the hopefully not prophetically named 900V Energee Golden Brick – can charge from 10 to 70 percent in just 4 minutes 22 seconds. That compares with BYD’s megawatt flash charging results of 5 minutes for the same race, an achievement that itself is way ahead of anything European or American automakers can deliver.
Related: BYD Says Its New Battery Can Recharge As Fast As Filling Up Your Gas Tank
Stretch the experiment from 10-80 percent and the Geely EV does the job in 5 minutes 32 seconds, and even going from 10-97 percent, which takes account of batteries charging more slowly as they get close to full, the clock only registers 8 minutes 42 seconds. BYD’s second-generation blade battery needs 9 minutes to get to 97 percent when hooked up to one of the company’s new megawatt flash chargers.
Destroys Western EVs
The secret sauce is a high voltage setup paired with seriously beefy charging hardware. We’re talking peak power of around 1,100 kW with strong input of more than 500 kW at 75 percent charged, and 350 kW at 97 percent. That 350 kW figure is higher than the peak charge rate achieved by all but the fastest-charging Western EVs.
There is a catch though, or more likely several. These charge speeds rely on next level charging stations that aren’t exactly everywhere yet. Geely’s network is growing, but it’s way behind BYD in terms of super-fast rollout, being about one quarter the size, Car News China reports. So while Geely may have bragging rights today, the real winner could still be whoever builds the infrastructure fastest.
BMW Not Convinced
Not everyone’s convinced this race is worth winning anyway. BMW has been openly skeptical about the obsession with ever faster charging.
“You always have to be careful with those kinds of announcements,” BMW’s battery production boss, Markus Fallböhmer told Carsales last month. “It is possible to optimize one single performance indicator, but you have to make compromises on other sides.”
That’s BMW’s polite way of saying there’s no free lunch. Push charging speeds high enough and something else may give, whether that’s longevity, cost, or overall performance.
