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From Charging to Supercharging: EVs Fully Charged in 10 Minutes

By TAN XINYU|Jan 24,2025

The Pakegongyuan supercharging station on Meiye Road was equipped with three liquid-cooled supercharging spaces in Chongqing on January 12. (Photo by Zhang Jinhui/Visual Chongqing)

Chongqing—How long does it take to fully charge a new energy vehicle in Chongqing? Two years ago, it took 7 to 8 hours; today, it only takes 10 minutes.

How did this change happen? Tan Ke, General Manager of the Operations Department at Chongqing Green Energy Dahe Technology Co Ltd, provided the answer: Over the past two years, the city's new energy vehicle charging stations have accelerated their upgrades, with a rapid increase in the number of supercharging stations. This makes it faster and more convenient for citizens to charge their new energy vehicles.

One second, one kilometer

On January 10, Tan used a charging new energy vehicle as an example to demonstrate the supercharging station's "acceleration."

"Although the charging time was only about 5 minutes, it was enough to give the vehicle a range of approximately 300 kilometers, which is equivalent to adding about 1 kilometer of range per second," Tan said, adding that to fully charge this vehicle, it would only take about 10 minutes.

Chongqing Green Energy Development Co Ltd and its subsidiary, Green Energy Dahe Technology, developed and operate the supercharging station. It is the first intelligent supercharging demonstration station in Chongqing, integrating supercharging, battery swapping, photovoltaics, energy storage, and other functions. The station has 22 charging spots, including three liquid-cooled supercharging spots, and a maximum output power of 600 kW.

"The liquid-cooled supercharging system has strong heat dissipation capabilities and high output power, which helps keep the battery temperature low during charging. This allows for higher current to pass through, significantly boosting the charging speed," Tan explained.

Each supercharging spot is equipped with an intelligent control system. Before charging, the system automatically performs multiple safety data checks and interacts with the vehicles Battery Management System (BMS) in real-time. As a result, the system can adjust the output power based on the battery's needs, ensuring fast yet safe supercharging.

Charging is fast, and battery swapping is even faster. The supercharging station also has a battery-swapping facility. At the site, a car drove into the swapping spot, the driver scanned a QR code to start the process, and without any manual intervention, the system automatically swapped the battery in just 3 minutes.

On January 12, taxis quickly completed battery swaps at the Pakegongyuan supercharging station on Meiye Road in Chongqing and drove off. (Photo by Zhang Jinhui/Visual Chongqing)

Market demand drives charging station upgrades

Since Chinese automaker BYD established China's first new-energy vehicle charging station in 2006, the development of charging stations in China has spanned nearly two decades.

During this period, charging station construction mainly focused on installing slow chargers and regular fast chargers, most of which were located in places where people typically spend a longer time, such as hotels, shopping malls, office areas, residential communities, and tourist attractions. These stations are referred to as destination charging stations.

In late November 2022, Green Energy Dahe Technology was established, and Tan became one of the company's first employees. He recalls that at that time, the visible charging stations in the Chongqing market were mainly destination charging stations and some regular fast charging stations.

"These charging stations are much slower than supercharging stations," Tan said. Typically, at a destination charging station, it takes 7-8 hours to fully charge a household electric vehicle with a slow charger, or 1-2 hours with a regular fast charger, he added.

The main reason for this is that slow chargers and regular fast chargers generally use natural or air-cooling technology, which is less effective than liquid cooling. To prevent safety incidents caused by rapid temperature increases in vehicle batteries during charging, the maximum output power and allowable current for these chargers are much lower than those of superchargers.

The slow charging speed has led to a shortage of charging stations, leaving many vehicle owners anxious about finding charging spots.

In fact, in recent years, there has been a growing demand for faster charging, especially among taxi drivers and ride-hailing drivers.

This demand has opened up opportunities for many businesses, leading to the rise of supercharging stations. Tan explained that supercharging stations began appearing in Chongqing around the first half of 2023.

"It was also during this year, after several months of preparation, that we, following the guidance of the local government, began to actively explore the full development of a supercharging network in Chongqing," Tan said.

The first supercharging station of Green Energy Dahe Technology was completed and put into operation on June 6, 2023.

Chongqing is among the top cities for supercharging stations

In March 2024, Chongqing released an action plan on Chongqing's new energy vehicle supercharging, outlining the goal to establish over 2,000 supercharging stations and more than 4,000 charging piles by the end of 2025.

Under the government's push, the construction of supercharging stations in Chongqing has accelerated.

In April 2024, the Pakegongyuan supercharging station on the Meiye Road officially opened. "During the exploration process, we introduced an all-encompassing, innovative charging, battery swapping, and post-market integrated energy service brandPakegongyuan, using a modular construction approach," said Tan.

This model, similar to building with Legos, is called "Charging Lego." It divides the station into different functional zones, such as charging and battery swapping, and configures charging and swapping equipment for each zone.

Once the station is completed, the charging and swapping facilities can be upgraded based on changing consumer demands. Meanwhile, Green Energy Dahe Technology launched the supercharging alliance, collaborating with nearly 30 new energy vehicle manufacturers and industry partners to solve technical challenges in building supercharging stations.

Since September 2024, Green Energy Dahe Technology has significantly accelerated its supercharging station construction, completing at least 20 new stations each month. Tan claimed that this pace is one of the fastest in the industry. Over the past year, the company has also added supercharging piles to existing stations and continues upgrading sites.

As of now, Green Energy Dahe Technology has built and put into operation over 400 charging stations in Chongqing, with more than 100 of them being supercharging stations, covering all districts in the central urban area as well as several other districts and counties.

"In terms of supercharging stations, Chongqing is one of the cities that made early moves," said Tan.

Data showed that by the end of 2024, there will be 500 supercharging stations under construction or completed and 800 supercharging piles, ranking among the top in the country.

"Currently, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in Chongqing has surpassed 50 percent, and the demand for supercharging stations is increasing. There is great potential for us to develop more supercharging stations," Tan said, adding, "In 2025, we will continue to accelerate the construction of supercharging stations, with plans to complete a total of 200 stations by the end of the year."

(Huang Guanghong and Zhang Jinhui, reporters from Chongqing Daily, contributed the Chinese version of this report.)

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