Fast charging is viable, but experts say building the actual charging stations will be the tricky—and potentially very expensive—part.
When surveys ask potential car buyers why they're not going electric, the answer is consistent: It's the charging. Drivers understand gas; plugging in, less so. They're worried about waiting around for a charger, which, depending on its power, can take anywhere between 20 minutes and eight hours to fill up a battery. So the hubbub around a surprise announcement from Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD makes sense. The automaker said this week that two new vehicles set to launch in April will be able to add 250 miles of range in just five minutes. That's twice as fast as even the next generation of Tesla Superchargers. (The day of BYD's announcement, Tesla stock dropped by five percent.) Topping up in five minutes makes for great ad copy, and could go a long way to alleviating drivers' concerns about EVs. But practically speaking, experts say, it might not be the gigantic charging breakthrough it seems. BYD says the superfast charging is made possible by an "all liquid-cooled megawatt flash-charging terminal system," according to Bloomberg, plus a new, automotive-grade silicon carbide power chip. The combination should allow the vehicle to channel up to 1,000 volts of charge. That's a small but significant jump…