Eliminating “range anxiety” is crucial to the adoption of electric vehicles and cutting the huge emissions of road transport. Nobody wants to run out of power when on the road.
One of the ways electric-carmakers are trying to win over sceptical consumers is by making charging faster — almost as quick as filling a car with petrol. Chinese carmaker BYD this year demonstrated two new vehicles capable of adding 250 miles of range in just five minutes.
That could eliminate the spectre of long queues at charging stations, though using them at peak times may mean tapping into the grid at time when less green energy is available.
How does it work?
Most home charging systems work by delivering alternating current (AC) which is converted into direct current (DC) by the car’s onboard charger. Rapid-charging systems, instead, deliver DC, bypassing the onboard converter and directly charging the battery. By operating at higher voltages, these systems can power batteries faster.
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But the batteries themselves need to be capable of withstanding these higher voltages. BYD’s innovation was to use lithium iron phosphate for its ultrafast-charging batteries. The material is less prone to overheating than conventional lithium-ion batteries, and can also endure a greater number of charging cycles.
To get the most out of these batteries, high-voltage chargers are needed. BYD says its liquid-cooled Megawatt Flash Charging system can reach a maximum output of 1,360kW, but these are not yet widely available.
Typical home chargers are 3kW or 7kW and take up to 12 hours. According to UK motoring organisation RAC, “rapid” chargers have a capacity of 50-100kW and take 30-60 minutes to charge the battery to 80 per cent, depending on the car, while “ultra rapid” chargers with a capacity of 100-350kW take 15-30 minutes.
What are the pros and cons?
Increasing charging speeds will make EVs more practical for long-distance travel and could boost their uptake. But faster charging, which requires higher voltages, can also result in increased safety risks and, for most conventional lithium ion batteries, shorter lifespans.
Rolling out a new network of these more powerful chargers — and strengthening the grid to handle them — will incur significant costs. “One of the biggest issues now is access to the charger,” said Ryan Fisher, head of charging infrastructure at research provider BloombergNEF.
Charging an EV slowly at home, typically overnight, is likely to remain the cheapest way to replenish the battery, and drivers will have to pay more for the convenience of using a rapid-charger at a station. Electricity costs for more powerful chargers may also be higher due to the extra strain on the grid, but greater competition among providers and carmakers could, over time, alleviate consumer prices.
Will it save the planet?
Switching just one petrol car to an EV can cut emissions by the equivalent of a person taking four return flights from London to Barcelona, according to French power utility EDF.
But the climate benefits of EVs — rapid-charging or otherwise — will always depend on the composition of energy sources being used to power the electrical grid. If that power comes from fossil fuels, then the climate benefits will be reduced.
Moreover, rapid-charging may not be the most efficient method to charge an EV. Most owners charge slowly at home — and typically only encounter public charging infrastructure on infrequent long road trips.
For these drivers, it is often more energy-efficient, and therefore cheaper, for a car to absorb and store energy at a time when demand on the grid is low, such as in the middle of the night. For some people “you just don’t need to have that power,” says Fisher.
Has it arrived yet?
BYD’s five-minute charging EVs were available for pre-order as soon as the technology was demonstrated in March. Rivals, including Elon Musk’s Tesla, have also substantially slashed charging times.
But it’s not enough to simply buy an EV with fast-charging batteries: You also need access to powerful chargers. BYD said in June that it would start installing a network of its five-minute ‘flash chargers’ in Europe.
The International Energy Agency reports that the global stock of fast chargers — defined as those with a power output of more than 22kW — climbed to about 2mn in 2024. Meanwhile, the volume of ultrafast chargers, which are capable of delivering at least 150kW, rose to more than 150,000. That rollout has accelerated as ultrafast chargers have become cheaper to install, with prices down a fifth since 2022, according to the IEA.
Who are the winners and losers?
Carmakers that invested early in developing fast-charging technology can use their innovations to differentiate themselves from competitors. “Proving you’re the best, by providing top-level technology, drives sales into all your other products too,” says Fisher. “It’s good advertising.”
Laggards, including many of the traditional automakers in the US and Europe, risk losing market share. Tesla, the US market leader in EVs, saw its shares drop by 5 per cent on the day of BYD’s surprise announcement in March. The latest generation of Tesla Superchargers charge an EV at less than half the pace claimed by BYD — although they’re still able to add up to 172 miles of range in just 15 minutes, according to the company.
In geopolitical terms, China is a clear winner. China accounted for over 70 per cent of global EV manufacturing in 2024, according to the IEA, and both of the technological leaders in rapid-charging — carmaker BYD and battery-maker CATL — are Chinese.
Who is investing in it?
Carmakers are pouring funds into EV battery and charging research in order to differentiate their products. Carmakers have collaborated to fund and install networks of public fast-chargers in order to encourage drivers to buy their latest products.
Governments are also investing in the development and rollout of faster charging stations in order to support the transition to EVs. The EU’s Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility allocated €1bn in early 2025 to build high-power charging stations for electric trucks and buses.
Even Donald Trump’s administration, which has slashed various climate projects, said in August that it would reopen a $5bn federal programme, which was launched under his predecessor Joe Biden, to fund the installation of high-speed EV chargers on the US highway network.