Geely plans to unveil an advanced electric car battery and charging system on Wednesday, allowing for 4 minute charges and charging speeds that are about 50% faster than Chinese rival BYD’s newest “Flash Charging 2.0” system.
EV fast charging is already well ahead of the rest of the world in China, but the industry isn’t standing still. Rather, there seems to be a developing arms race in charging tech, bringing charge times down seemingly every few months.
It’s gotten to the point where Chinese EVs have started having to measure charging times in seconds, not minutes, with the difference between a 5 minute charge (BYD Blade 2.0) and a 4 minute 22 second charge (Geely Golden Brick) becoming significant.
The next salvo looks like it will be fired on September 23, just two days from now (or one, given it’s already tomorrow in China), as Geely said it’s ready to announce chargers capable of delivering 2.2MW of power, about half again as much as BYD’s 1.5MW Flash Charging 2.0 system.
We don’t have full information yet, and will learn more soon, but Geely made a social media post over the weekend announcing the event:
Translated (via machine), it says:
Charge in Four Minutes, Drive with Peace of Mind
Global Launch of Geely’s Next-Generation Al Smart Charging Technology
4 Days to Go
September 23
Geely Global All-Domain Safety Center
So, that doesn’t tell us much on its own. And four minutes isn’t all that drastic of an increase from what Geely’s Lynk & Co. 10 models can already do.
However, we don’t know exactly the details of what this “four minutes” means. Most EV charging is quoted from 10-70% or 80%, as charging typically slows drastically when nearing 100%. So the times can be massaged a little depending on where you start and end your charging.
The mention of AI seems superfluous, but seems related to Geely’s charging algorithm. Supposedly this “smart charging” technology will help to manage battery temperatures and longevity. We’ve seen claims that this includes 3,500 charge/discharge cycles “with limited degradation.”
We’ll find out more about the specifics of the system when Geely officially announces it on Wednesday, but it’s already around six times faster than anything available in the US, and in fact is even faster than Tesla’s first 1.2MW Megacharger location.
That location is meant to charge giant trucks, though, whereas Geely’s will charge consumer vehicles with much smaller batteries.
The new announcement will come as part of a presentation at Geely’s Safety Center in Ningbo, China, planned for September 23. Whatever we learn on Wednesday, it does seem like it’s going to make everything in America seem like a children’s toy.
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