Chinese auto manufacturer BYD says it has developed technology that speeds up electric vehicle battery charging to as little as five minutes at 1,000 kilowatts, providing enough energy for nearly 250 miles of driving.
The potential battery breakthrough was announced on a livestream by the company’s CEO Wang Chuanfu and sent the company’s stock soaring. The charging technology would appear to provide fuel-ups at twice the speed that Tesla currently offers at its Supercharger stations. BYD says it plans to deploy the charging-infrastructure technology in China. The batteries that can charge that quickly will initially be built into two new vehicles from the company, a sedan and an SUV.
The company didn’t say how soon it would build that infrastructure or when those vehicles might be available.
BYD didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the technology.
