BYD Atto 3: Chinese model charges in under 10 minutes via flash charging

Charging speed is becoming the new battleground for Chinese electric car manufacturers. BYD is giving its Atto 3 – sold there as the Yuan Plus – a massive technology upgrade in its home market. At its heart is the Blade Battery 2.0. This enables so-called flash charging, which fully charges the battery in less than 10 minutes. For those in a particular hurry, the batteries can be charged to 70 percent capacity in just five minutes.

To accommodate this technology, the electric car's body lengthens to 4.66 meters. Interestingly, the battery capacity shrinks to 68.5 kWh. This means the Chinese model differs fundamentally from the European version. While we already use 800-volt technology in the Atto 3 Evo here in Europe, BYD goes significantly further with the platform architecture in China—the platform there is optimized for extremely high currents.

In my opinion, this extreme focus on charging time instead of range is a risky experiment. While ten minutes for a full charge sounds impressive, in everyday use, a larger battery with greater range is likely to be more important to many European customers. We've already reached a very high level here, with charging capacities of 300-400 kW for premium models in our market. The fact that BYD uses such different platforms within a single model series for different markets demonstrates the enormous speed of their development.

Whether and when this new battery generation will enter export markets remains to be seen. In China, however, the upgrade provides a clear competitive advantage over international rivals. Whether the increased vehicle length benefits only the battery or also comfort will have to be determined in initial tests. The technological advancement in cell chemistry, however, is undeniable.

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