Highly charged: Geely challenges BYD fast-charging supremacy with battery taking 4 minutes for a 10-70 per cent top-up
Chinese car-making giant Geely has released full details of what it claims is the world’s fastest charging mass-production battery, following the unveiling of its all-new 900V Energee Golden Brick Battery.
Claimed to beat BYD’s second generation Blade battery when topped up with the firm’s Flash Charger, the new Golden Brick installed in a Lynk & Co 10 is said to take just 4 minutes 22 seconds for a 10-70 per cent refill; 5 minutes 32 seconds for a 10-80 per cent top-up and a remarkable 8 minutes 42 seconds for a 10-97 per cent charge.
For reference, those times are even quicker than BYD’s megawatt flash charging Blade 2.0 battery that takes 5 minutes (10-70 per cent) and 9 minutes for a 10-97 per cent charge.
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To replicate those incredible charging times, Geely said you need Zeekr’s V4 megawatt charger, with the Golden Brick accepting a maximum charging rate of 1100kW, with its advanced architecture allowing it to continue to accept well over 500kW of energy once the state-of-charge had exceeded 80 per cent.
The catch is, said Zeekr, its V4 chargers have yet to be rolled out at the car-maker’s 2103 charging sites, which already includes an incredible 10,212 charging piles.
For context, while that number might sound impressive, BYD has announced it has installed its 5000th megawatt charger and is expected to build 20,000 charging stations from now until the end of this year in the region.
Zeekr has revealed its charger is capable of delivering up to 1300kW peak power at a maximum current rate of 1300A, which requires extensive liquid cooling to deal with the heat generated.
In Australia, where it’s still more common to stumble over an old 400-volt charger than even a post that can dish out 350kW, BYD and its premium Denza brand have committed to roll out an undisclosed number of its 1MW flash chargers, promising they will be installed and in use within the next 12-18 months.
Labelled as a ‘game-changer’ locally, Australians should be able to add as much as 500km of driving range within just five minutes, putting the EV almost on par with a petrol or diesel, so long as they drive the most modern EVs with batteries able to accept such a high energy top up.
