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Major EV Car Brand Unveils Groundbreaking New Technology That Charges Car For 300 Miles In Just 5 Minutes
A MAJOR EV car brand has unveiled groundbreaking new technology that charges a car for 300 miles in just five minutes.
Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD has revealed the new charging system which could revolutionise the landscape.
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BYD have unveiled groundbreaking new technologyCredit: BYD
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The new lighting fast chargersCredit: BYDUsing a new network of ultra-fast charging devices, BYD claim the tech is capable of adding up to 470 kilometres (292 miles) of range from a charging session lasting just five minutes.
This means it is almost equivalent to the time it takes to fill up a petrol of diesel car at the pumps.
Charging speeds of 1,000 kW – or 1 megawatt (MW) – would be twice as fast as Tesla's superchargers, which offer up to 500 kW.
In tests, the new battery maintained high levels of charging power throughout the charging process, achieving up to 600kW even at a 90 per cent state of charge.
Shares in the Chinese EV giant have since surged to a record high on the back of the announcement of its "flash charging" tech.
Although BYD has yet to reveal its capacity and weight, the company claims it has achieved a 10C charging multiplier.
BYD founder Wang Chuanfu said it has the potential to "fundamentally solve users' charging anxiety."
He added: "Our pursuit is to make the charging time of electric vehicles as short as the refuelling time of fuel vehicles."
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UK's 4th biggest car dealer AXES two brands after shutting another branchBYD was the world's second-largest producer of battery electric vehicles in 2024, marginally behind Tesla.
However, the Chinese company also sells hundreds of thousands of plug-in hybrids that combine a battery with a petrol engine.
Wang, who is often described as China's answer to the Tesla boss, Elon Musk, started the business as a battery maker in 1995, before starting car manufacturing in 2003.
Popular car brand to launch new EV as company teases 'hammerhead' design to rival the Volvo EC40To facilitate the introduction of its new battery technology, BYD plans to construct more than 4000 supercharging stations across China.
It comes after two carmakers have unveiled 11 fresh motors which will be released in 2026.
Volkswagen and Jetta will design the vehicles exclusively for the Chinese market.
Six of those cars will be EVs while two will be plug-in hybrids.
The remainder will comprise two extended-rangers and one gasoline motor.
A Jetta-branded EV model will be the first to hit the market in 2026 as it aims to address its declining market share in the east Asian country.
Volkswagen suffered a 9.5% sales slump in China where competition has intensified and economic headwinds are weighing on consumer spending.
China has long been leader in the EV market, which some experts suggest is down to car manufacturers working faster to produce affordable cars.
Manufacturer BYD even beat Tesla in UK sales last month.
"Chinese brands are super competitive. For example, you can already pick up a new MG5 today for under £20,000 by shopping around.
"Where will they be in three years' time? VW really has its work cut out," a car expert told The Telegraph.
The MoD has leased hundreds of Chinese electric vehicles to try to meet Net Zero targets.
And they have ordered thousands more under plans to clean up its fleet of 12,000 civilian vehicles within two years.
Lighter, Punchier Batteries Key To VW's New, Cheaper ID.2 And ID.1 EVs
New generation battery tech – with good energy density and lighter weight – will enable Volkswagen to make EVs more affordable for European buyers.
The Polo-sized ID.2 – due in 2026 – should have an entry price close to £20,000, and the 2027 ID.1 production version of the ID.Every1 concept could come in around £17,000. Today's cheapest electric Volkswagen is the £30,000 ID.3 hatchback.
VW's baby BEVs are switching to lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which use raw materials that are typically cheaper than the Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC) cathode design powering the current ID range. LFP isn't as energy dense as NMC but Volkswagen will overcome that by cramming more cells into its cars using a new 'cell-to-pack' system.
Cell-to-pack battery designThe thinking is similar to the Blade battery of Chinese car maker BYD, which layers long cells across its battery pack to boost energy density. The MEB31 battery module in today's VW EVs needs a series of metal ribs to hold the rectangular modules in place, unnecessary structure the new design can jettison.
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"The usable space is much better, we can pack in more energy density and it's lighter," says VW engineer Malte Schulz. As a result, VW can get sufficient battery cells into the ID.1's short wheelbase, while trimming some weight given that the Up! Replacement has only a 94bhp motor.
The new cell-to-pack design is scalable to boost cost competitiveness: the same layout can also accommodate higher performance NMC cells for Porsche and Audi models. In the initial stages they won't be a 'cell-to-body' design – where the battery pack forms a structural part of the car, as in BYD's Seal – though Volkswagen says this will come in the next stage.
Batteries made in EuropeThe batteries will be manufactured in Europe, with pilot production underway at the Salzgitter gigafactory in Lower Saxony owned by VW spin-off PowerCo.
"The battery cell is the combustion chamber of tomorrow," says Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume. "It's a core competency for VW Group, so we need the engineering knowledge and to own production. Salzgitter will ramp up this year."
The plant will have a capacity of around 40 gigawatthours, and cell production could be split between LFP and NMC chemistries.
Another 60gWh will come on stream at PowerCo's second European plant in Valencia, Spain, in 2026. A third factory is underway in Ontario, Canada, with up to 90gWh, which is due to open in 2027. That gives PowerCo and Volkswagen a capacity of around 200gWh.
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Volkswagen's Profit Under Pressure From Tariffs And Competition
Volkswagen's earnings dropped last year and its profitability may improve only marginally this year, as the automaker repositions its global business to deal with shifting trade policies in the United States and tough competition from its Chinese rivals.
Volkswagen is Europe's largest carmaker, and its reach extends across the globe. While the company's size and scale served it well for decades, in recent years they have become a headache, especially since President Trump upended global trade practices by threatening tariffs against America's largest trading partners.
Volkswagen said on Tuesday that its revenue was flat while operating profit fell 15 percent in 2024, citing "a significant increase in fixed costs" linked to restructuring. For this year, the company expects its operating profit margin to be in a range of 5.5 to 6.5 percent, roughly the same as the 5.9 percent margin it recorded last year.
"Our outlook reflects the global economic challenges and the profound changes that are happening in the industry," said Arno Antlitz, chief financial officer of Volkswagen. Among the challenges, he said, were "an environment of political uncertainty, expanding trade restrictions and geopolitical tensions."
The company's restructuring costs included nearly $1 billion for a severance pay program linked to the administrative division of the Volkswagen brand. The company also reached an agreement last year with the IG Metall union that included plans to cut 35,000 jobs through retirement and attrition, but without any immediate closures of the company's 10 factories in Germany.
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