“Probably, no.”
With that forceful response, Andrew Cornelia, CEO of Mercedes-Benz High-Power Charging and therefore the head of the company’s recharge systems, explained his opinion on the Awesome recharge system presented by byd A few days ago.
The answer has arrived in Plugged-in podcastthe radio space of Insideevs. There, Cornelia explained that the exercise for having such a rapid recharge under the arm obeys the need to give a backup to users than to the real utility of the same.
The origin of these comments must be sought in the presentation of ByD a few days ago. The company confirmed that it has two cars ready and a load platform that allows recharging up to 400 kilometers of autonomy in five minutes. They get it, on paper, Delivering 1 MWh of sustained power.
At the time we explain that it would be necessary to do to what extent it is true to recharge 400 real kilometers in five minutes. Keep in mind that the Chinese homologation cycle is much more lax than the European WLTP that, in fact, It does not completely reflect consumption From electric cars at highway speeds 120-130 km/h in the vast majority of European countries.
With such a power, yes, the data is almost irrelevant because to fill 400 kilometers in five minutes it is possible that very little more time is needed. Of course, you have to have some conditions into account.
The first is that, Assuming a consumption of 20 kWh/100 kma figure that is not especially good or exceptionally high, it would be necessary to fill the battery with 80 kW to make those 400 real kilometers of autonomy. This implies that a much larger battery is needed.
Keep in mind that the loading power decays substantially when the battery goes from 80% capacity to protect from excessive degradation. The usual thing is that the cargo peak arrives, at least, after the first 10%. Therefore, filling 80 kW from 10 to 80% of the battery capacity would imply having about 115 kWh capacity under the body.
In addition, the charger must be able to supply this power during those five minutes without resenting the least. The load should be, at least with a power of 960 kW. An absolutely unknown figure currently in European loaders.
For Mercedes it makes no sense
And they are probably right. Although those 400 kilometers of autonomy in five minutes sound especially good, what they say in Mercedes is that a stop to fill a gas tank involves stopping about 10-12 minutes on average. And that is where you have to point.
In order to load that amount of kilometers, huge infrastructure is needed around each electric car. Byd will have to display your own loaders And only a few cars can assume that stream of electrical power. To get an idea, a Tesla Model and Juniper It has the capacity to recharge its batteries at 270 kW (about three times) and a Porsche Taycan, one of the models with the best figures on the market, “only” admits 320 kW of power in a recharge.
With 320 kW of power, Porsche Taycan only needs 18 minutes to move from 0% battery to 80%. With that 80% battery, which has a useful capacity of 97 kWh, it should be able to make the aforementioned 400 real kilometers. If we add that the driver will never arrive with 0% battery to the load point … it is expected that with the appropriate charger the Porsche Taycan receives that amount of energy in 15 minutes more or less. According to Mercedes accounts, there is hardly any difference with what would take time to fill the deposit.
In fact, I encourage anyone to think how long it takes to make a stop during a long trip with a combustion car. I do not talk about sitting down to eat, maybe or to ask for coffee, enough to go to the bathroom. I doubt that the driver has to “wait for the car” in that case, it is very likely that little by stretching his legs he has the battery ready to continue again. And we are not talking about 200 kilometers, we talk about replenishing 400 kilometers in just over 10 minutes.
However, Mercedes gives relevance to the development of this type of rapid recharges. “It’s key,” says Cornelia in the podcast. “It’s an amazing advance, The industry will follow its example“, But stressed that” there is only a limited number of use cases in which such a fast recharge really makes sense (…) If you go to the cinema, you do not need a 1,000 kW load. You need something that lasts two hours. If you go to a cafeteria, you may want something faster, but it is still a 15 -minute stop to enter and leave. “
In spite of everything mentioned above and although Mercedes has recognized us That they prefer to focus on efficiency and low consumption or a greater and better density of their batteries, it is true that Byd’s advance is very interesting.
First for the company that allows you to have an added value in the process of purchase of the next electric car of a potential customer, As the Tesla charger has meant in the United States. But, also because it offers support and security to the customer. You may never use it very counted throughout the useful life of the vehicle.
What happens with these extremely powerful chargers is the same that happens with the Autonomies of 1,000 kilometers In an electric car (exist or not). In practice they are not necessary but help strengthen the security of those who adopt the new technology because blur your barriers With what it is to drive a combustion car.
In spite of everything, one thing must be very clear. Until now, what is presented by ByD is an advance for China with two very specific models, it is not something that will reach Europe or that we will see in Europe within a short time of time.
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