Chinese EVs revolutionize charging, Canadians are unable to access

Popular Chinese EV maker BYD has revealed that it can charge its cars up to 400km in five minutes, finally breaking the EV charging barrier and making it as fast as filling up a tank of gas.

These claims are still untested, but if they’re true, they blow all of the North American automakers out of the water. I’m currently writing a story about the new Cadillac Escalade EV, which takes over an hour to charge and would take around 30 minutes or more to hit the same 400km limit as BYD.

Currently, it’s pretty much impossible to get a BYD car in Canada, and if you do manage to import one, it will be pretty costly since there is a 106 per cent tariff on electric vehicles made in China.

While there was some outcry against the Chinese tariffs when they were launched, most Canadians were for them since we had a strong automotive pipeline in conjunction with the U.S. One new president later and the auto manufacturing corridor around the Great Lakes is looking a little more shaky.

On top of that, North American automakers are also not innovating at the same pace as China, resulting in lacklustre charging and battery architecture. Don’t get me wrong, things are improving here, but not as fast as in China, and it doesn’t seem fast enough to hit some of the lofty EV goals set by the Canadian government.

Source: The Verge