GOOD MORNING FROM LONDON
CHINA’S BYD ROCKS THE GLOBAL AUTO SECTOR
THE GUARDIAN – UK
“For the second time in weeks, BYD, the Chinese rival to Tesla backed by Warren Buffett, has rocked the global auto sector. On Monday, Wang Chuanfu, the Shenzhen-based group’s billionaire founder, unveiled a new charging system that could add about 470km in range to BYD’s batteries in just five minutes.
The release of the so-called Super e-Platform has thrust BYD to the front of an industry-wide race to develop battery cells for electric vehicles that will make refuelling EVs as fast as filling up cars with petrol or diesel. It follows the February announcement of its “God’s Eye” advanced driver-assistance system being made available on all its models for free.
According to BYD, the platform has charging power of 1,000 kilowatts and takes up to 1,000 amps. This means it can charge batteries at a rate of about 2km per second and add 400km in range in five minutes.
The technology release implies BYD has cleared several hurdles in ultrafast charging, including safety risks, shorter battery lifespans, and the extra costs associated with installing superfast chargers.
Shay Natarajan, partner at Mobility Impact Partners, a private equity fund, said BYD was using a more sophisticated battery cooling system compared with western carmakers. “This lets the battery reach peak charging power faster and sustain that peak power longer during the charging cycle, thus increasing the average charging power during the charging cycle and allowing for significantly faster charging,” she said.
GRAHAM PERRY COMMENTS;-
We have been here before – and quite recently. The AI landscape experienced a seismic shift recently with the emergence of DeepSeek AI from China.
Wealthify, which closely follows technological developments, stated earlier this month they were struck by how this new player has managed to challenge the established giants of the AI industry, particularly American companies like OpenAI, Google, and Meta. The rise of DeepSeek AI challenges the dominance of these industry leaders, signalling a new era of competition and innovation in the global AI race.
And now a second big new development. BYD – the Chinese rival to Tesla backed by Warren Buffett – has rocked the global auto sector. “On Monday, Wang Chuanfu, the Shenzhen-based group’s billionaire founder, unveiled a new charging system that could add about 470km in range to BYD’s batteries in just five minutes…” Current charging capabilities limits Teslas to being charged up to 200 miles (320km) in added range in 15 minutes.
And looking ahead, the key challenger to BYD is another Chinese company – battery giant CATL. Last year, the group unveiled its Shenxing Plus battery with a charge time of 600km in 10 minutes. Analysts expect BYD’s rivals to reach similar charging speeds in the coming year.
There is more to come because China is on the move. To world domination? No. China’s critics get that one wrong. The new China is not the old US. It sees the world through a quite different perspective. It rejects Superpower Status. Its key phrase is “Multi-Polar”. It means there will be many centres of international power as the 21st Century races ahead and China, because of its size and dynamism, will play its part as one of the leading powers. But not as a Superpower. Beijing will not become the new Washington – not because it lacks power but because it rejects world domination as an objective.
This will take getting used to in the West because it has been fed intentionally false information about China, its internal development and its foreign policy goals. But the penny will drop. There is one stand out figure that says so much about getting the proper perspective on China – the Travelex prediction that, annually, 200 million Chinese will travel outside China by 2030. The Sick Man of Asia in 1949 is today the saviour of international leisure tourism.
GRAHAM PERRY
CHINA POST #562 WILL FOCUS ON RARE EARTHS
