Peter Lyon
March 28, 2025
Electric car giant BYD has recently announced that it is installing electric vehicle (EV) chargers with a maximum output of 1,360 kW in China, over 4,000 of them – allowing EVs to be charged as quickly as petrol cars. These ‘megawatt flash-chargers’ can recharge up to around 250 miles of range in five minutes to BYD EVs that can accept that level of power – which is around four times faster than Tesla’s Supercharger network.
A story this week in the UK put this new ultra-quick charge system into perspective.
Even if BYD doesn’t install its chargers in the UK, there are plans to install chargers there with similar power for HGVs (heavy goods vehicle). But such chargers can take a long time to get grid connections in the UK – a number of years in some cases. So what can be done to speed up the installation timescales – and to reduce the costs?
One solution to reduce the size and the cost of the grid connection for new charging infrastructure is ‘load balancing’ – distributing power across multiple charging stations to optimise charging capacity and reduce the load on the grid. However new technology that is more effective for managing megawatt and ultra-rapid chargers has now been launched, harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver more intelligent energy compression than traditional load balancing.
The new technology from CrowdCharge can reduce the need for grid upgrades by using digital twin simulation during the planning stage of new charging projects.
Mike Potter, CEO of CrowdCharge, comments: “Megawatt chargers have the potential to revolutionise how quickly you can charge next-generation electric cars, as well as electric trucks, but the installation of such chargers can be subject to significant delays due to grid connections taking a number of years in many cases. But thankfully, there’s a solution: new AI simulator technology can create a digital twin of a future project, allowing installers to reduce the scale of new grid connections, save energy costs, and unlock revenue from grid services.”
CARLIST THOUGHTS
BYD’s new tech sounds like the answer the industry has been waiting for. That’s 250 miles of range added in five minutes using the ultra-quick chargers. This new state-of-the-art technology from CrowdCharge enables organisations such as charge point operators, fleets and local authorities to view a unique ‘digital twin’ of their low carbon technologies, with the ability to add new elements and see the impact on installation costs.
