Torque Shop: Charging an EV fully in 5 minutes not quite possible here yet
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How quickly an electric vehicle's batteries can be filled depends on the charger rating and the car's on-board components.
ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO
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There has been news of technology which can add as much as 400km of operating range to an electric vehicle (EV) with just five minutes of charging. Is this possible in Singapore?
Power, expressed in watts, is the measure of how fast electrical energy flows.
In China, BYD’s 1,000-kilowatt (kW) charger rating means that in five minutes, approximately 83 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electrical energy will flow into the batteries. For most EVs, this would be good enough to run another 400km. This is comparable with how long it takes to fill the petrol tank of an internal combustion engine car.
Huawei, another Chinese technological giant, announced in March 2024 that it will roll out EV chargers in Singapore. Although the company’s chargers can go up to 600kW, the ones for Singapore will be fixed at 480kW, which is just below the imposed national standard of 500kW.
It is an encouraging development for EVs as charging times tumble. However, ultra-high-speed charging is possible only if the EV’s battery, power-control electronics and thermal management system are designed and built to accept the high power.
While the EV may be able to accept the plug connector from a 1,000kW charger, the actual energy flow is limited by the car’s specified fast-charging input power.
In other words, a car designed and specified for a 150kW DC charging capability will cap the energy input to this rate, even if it is plugged into a 480kW or 1,000kW super-charger.
BYD’s latest EVs, the Han L and Tang L, are built on a 1,000-volt architecture, with the capability of accepting the new 1,000kW chargers.
But in Singapore, barring changes to rules governing charging, the cars will not be able to be charged at speeds that are anywhere near their full capability.
The limitations of the power grid and the difficulty of handling the heat generated during high-speed charging are the main reasons for the 500kW cut-off for the charging facilities in Singapore.
In China, BYD overcomes these hurdles by using its own battery-storage auxiliary-supply facility to provide the necessary 1,000 volt and 1,000 ampere to the charging stations, while thermal management is handled by liquid-cooled heat exchangers.
