BYDs Ground Shaking Announcement -- 1 MW DCFC and (2) Vehicles Capable of Accepting It

1,000 Volts, 1,000 Amps, and 10C charging from a 1 MW DCFC.

Wayne Gerdes – CleanMPG – Mar. 18, 2025

BYD Han L EV


Underpinned by BYD's Super e-Platform using a redesigned pack that supports up to 10 C and 1,000 kW.​

As if we have not heard enough about China’s massive EV sales volumes, one of their top EV manufacturers, BYD, which accounts for more than a third of all EV sales in China, just introduced a new lithium-iron phosphate battery. This is no ordinary Li-Ion however. According to their global intro, it is “possibly” the world’s safest, most efficient, and capable of charging an EV to maybe 60% SOC in just five minutes or the equivalent of adding nearly a mile of range every second.

BYD said its blade batteries were designed to allow faster ion transfer in the electrolyte and less resistance through the diaphragm, allowing the fastest charging EV in history. The vehicles charging system relies on silicon carbide power chips that were developed entirely in house.

Both the Sedan and SUV models are equipped with BYD's God's Eye B smart driving system, with hardware including a roof-mounted LiDAR. And at no extra cost.

The company is also expected to install over 4,000 1-MW DCFC’ers across China to charge the soon to arrive Han L sedan and Tang L SUV. The roll out will include on-site energy storage which will make the DCFCers more expensive but far more reliable.

Like any Chinese release however, BYDs one weakness is that JD Power’s 2024 China New Energy Vehicle Initial Quality Study (IQS) which ranked the BYD Seal and BYD Song Plus battery electrics at the bottom of its rankings. Sound familiar? J.D. Power Vehicle Dependability Continues to Show Deterioration… As usual, Lexus ranks highest, Toyota ranks highest among mass market brands, and Tesla lingers near the bottom.

BYD’s new platform is set to go into the Han L and Tang L in April with a pre-sales price target of $37,300 USD for the Han L EV sedan.

 

Hi All:

A few caveats to the BYD announcement the other day should be brought up. As mentioned above, the reliability of the BYD lineup is not exactly what I would call stellar to begin with. More importantly however, there are no 1 MW DCFCers in service in the entire country so the 1 MW DCFC capable vehicle introduction is going to fall on deaf ears in real world practicality. There are 500 KW DCFCers in China so there is that.

The next item is range from a single fast charge. Is it WLTP, or some Chinese spec. Neither are EPA so maybe it is 175 to 200-miles in 5-minutes of charging on a 1 MW DCFC? I do not know. While the announcement is amazing, until it is seen in the real world, it could just be hype?

Another aspect I am thinking about and it really ticks me off if so is the fact the US Government has spent billions of $USDs studying and improving battery chemistry, anode and cathode construction and chemistry, and even packaging through both the Govt. labs - NREL for one, and direct University grants. Of the tens of to maybe hundreds of billions of $s spent, how does a company the size of BYD come up with a lithium-iron phosphate battery pack that can bury the specs of any NMC pack that the US, Europeans, Japanese, and Korean's have been working on for decades?

LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate) and NMC (Nickel Manganese Cobalt) batteries are both lithium-ion chemistries obviously, but LFP excels in safety, thermal stability, and cycle life. NMC by comparison offers higher energy density and power capability. NMC should be the go to for performance BEVs yet BYD possibly kicks everyone's @$$ for less cost.

I will be looking for real world charging profiles once the BYD offerings hit the road in China.

Wayne

 

BYD Q4 2024 Earnings Up 73% with its American Depository Receipt (ADR) Hitting New Record Highs

The carmaker that is taking the world by storm is China’s BYD. BYD's Q4 net income of $2.07 billion USD was up 73% with revenue of $37.89 billion USD, up 53%. For all of 2024, BYD reported total Revenue of $107 billion USD, up 29%, Net Income of $5.6 billion USD, up 34%, and its Net Profit Margin was up 27.3% to 5.0%.

By comparison, Tesla's 2024 total Revenue of $97.7 billion USD was up 0.95%, while its Net Income of $7.1 billion USD was down 52.7%, and its Net Profit Margin fell 53.2% to 7.2%.

In terms of sales volumes, BYD sold 4.272 million vehicles in 2024, up 161% vs all of 2023. Tesla sold more EVs in 2024 with 1.79 million vehicles vs BYD's 1.764 million. That said, BYD chairman and president Wang Chuanfu provided sales target guidance for 2025 of 5.5 million vehicles.

In January, BYD sold nearly twice as many EVs as Tesla, which saw sales slump by 11% YOY.

BYD ADR – 3-year price chart

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Considering the above chart, know this. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway bought 225 million shares of BYD on September 27, 2008, at $8.00/share which was a 10% stake at the time. Despite the investment being one of Berkshire Hathaway's most successful, they have been a large seller since mid-2022 with holdings less than half of their original investment for one hell of a profit.

Wayne

 

Hi All:

Just a short note on tampering down expectations...

An upcoming 2026 Lucid Gravity takes ~ 8 minutes to charge the Gravity SUV for 170-miles range on existing 350 KW DCFC'ers.

The upcoming 2025 BYD Han L EV "may" take 5-minutes to charge out to 400 km/248-miles but the conversion from the Chinese cycle to EPA reveals maybe 170-miles range when charged on a yet to be rolled out, 1 MW DCFC in China.

Wayne

 

Hi All:

Damn! The BYD Han L EV has a starting MSRP of just $29,985 in China, with the top trim reaching $38,100. The base trim (LiDAR Premium) starts at 219,800 yuan ($30,000 USD), while the top trim (AWD LiDAR Flagship) is 279,800 yuan ($38,100 USD).

Wayne