Blade Battery 2.0 and Flash Charger: BYD further accelerates charging
The charging power of e-cars can apparently be further increased. Those who go as far as BYD must set up corresponding charging infrastructure.
BYD 1MW fast charging station. The black cabinets are the battery storage units for boosting. They will not be located next to the charging bays later.
(Image: BYD)
Car drivers are currently learning that electric cars in their current form can already be a full replacement for internal combustion engine vehicles in most normal application scenarios and will incur significantly lower costs in the long run. Parts of the automotive industry continue to advertise with ever records in charging times and ranges – keyword: “Charging as fast as refueling.” The race doesn't seem to be over yet. BYD justifies its efforts with market observations. The company is introducing its Blade Battery 2.0, including a fast charger necessary for its high charging performance. A matching car is expected to follow soon.
Enormous amounts of electricity
The Chinese conglomerate BYD, which started as a battery producer in the mid-90s and now also manufactures electric cars, is now announcing the “Flash Charger,” a charging station that is supposed to shorten charging times to just a few minutes with a power of 1.5 megawatts. That would indeed be as fast as refueling, including payment. However, this only works with a significant limitation: The car must be equipped with a battery including the corresponding charging technology that can also accept such enormous amounts of electricity. So far, this is only standard for trucks and only up to 1 MW.
At the same time, BYD promises further increased range through higher energy density of the battery cells. Combining these two opposing requirements is only possible with further development of the cell chemistry. According to its statements, BYD has pushed the boundaries of robust and inexpensive lithium iron phosphate technology far beyond. For example, the cathode has a direction-oriented, multi-stage particle size architecture that enables dense packing and rapid deintercalation. BYD calls this “Flash-Release” to emphasize the speed gain.
Reduction of resistance
As usual, in the Blade 2.0, Li+ is released from the positive electrode with lower resistance during charging (“de-intercalated”) and stored in the negative electrode (“intercalated”) until it is fully charged in the maximum lithium-rich state. This reduction in resistance in BYD's new cell chemistry is supported by an AI-optimized electrolyte, which is intended to ensure high ionic conductivity and rapid ion mobility. BYD calls this “Flash-Flow.” To reduce the resistance for storage at the anode, it features an improvement in its multidimensional structure with graphite particles additionally oriented perpendicular to the electrode plane. Both are intended to help accelerate the intercalation of lithium ions.
The reduced internal resistance allows higher charging currents without exceeding the thermal load limit, and simultaneously enables a five percent higher energy density, as BYD further explains. Additionally, BYD's new cell structure has an “extremely thin” solid electrolyte intermediate layer, which, despite increased chemical structure stabilization including a self-repair mechanism, achieves an increase in ionic conductivity. BYD is not going into further details of the cell chemistry yet, but promises, in addition to increased performance, even better durability and protection against thermal runaway.
High performance even in cold
Without capacity specifications, the undoubtedly impressive figures, according to which a charge from 10 to 70 percent should take five minutes, and a charge from 10 to 97 percent in nine minutes, are put into perspective. Almost more interesting is the promise that even at minus 30 degrees, it will be possible to charge from 20 to 97 percent in just twelve minutes. This is remarkable because conventional LFP batteries have long since lost their charging capacity at such temperatures. Similar developments were recently announced by competitor CATL – with heating. It is possible that BYD has also installed a powerful heating system without elaborating on it.
This high charging performance is only possible where corresponding currents can flow. BYD promises to build a network of 1.5-megawatt chargers for this purpose. Currently, there are already over 4239 such stations in China, and by the end of 2026, the company aims to reach the mark of 20,000 charging stations there and subsequently expand internationally. The stations are designed to be equipped with an internal storage system where the existing power grid cannot provide the full power. This buffer storage fills up between charging breaks to compensate for the difference between the maximum power output from the grid and the charging current demand of the car as a booster.
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With their five percent higher energy density, the new batteries are expected to enable a range of “over 1000 kilometers” in CLTC (corresponding to around 820 km in WLTP), which is hardly meaningful without specifying the battery capacity. It is presumed to be a battery with significantly more than 100 kWh net. We will have to wait until these batteries first appear in the Shooting Brake Denza Z9GT, a brand of BYD.
(Image:Â Denza)
The final specifications of the European version of this electric car with Flash Charging and Blade Battery 2.0 in the style and format of a Porsche Taycan will be released in the coming weeks. Currently, with conventional technology, a net energy content of 100.1 kWh and a range of 630 km in CLTC (corresponding to approx. 480 to 510 km in WLTP) are still listed.
Whether BYD's hope “Flash Flow equals Cash Flow” will quickly materialize in Europe is questionable, given the infrastructure and prices of 80 to over 100,000 Euros for a Denza Z9GT. However, if the fast chargers are compatible for general charging and are opened up, the charging network will become denser overall. That would be good news for e-mobility as a whole. However, there is a catch: CCS is not suitable for such high currents, so the stations and cars have their standard. If BYD wanted to open up its stations, they would have to be equipped with an additional charging cable for cars with CCS connections.
(fpi)