(Bloomberg) — BYD Co. shares jumped to a record after the Chinese automaker unveiled a line-up of electric vehicles that it says can charge almost as fast as it takes to refuel a regular car.
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The automaker’s stock climbed as much as 6% at the open of trading in Hong Kong Tuesday, lifting its market value to almost $162 billion — more than Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Volkswagen AG combined.
BYD’s new battery and charging system was capable of providing around 400 kilometers (249 miles) of range in 5 minutes in tests on its new Han L sedan, Chairman and founder Wang Chuanfu said Monday. The manufacturer will start selling vehicles with the new technology next month.
Being able to charge a car in the time it takes a combustion engine vehicle to pull in and out of a gas station could convince drivers who aren’t willing to make lengthy stops to go electric.
“We believe this is another sign that BYD is undergoing a strategic shift,” Macquarie Capital analysts, including head of China autos Eugene Hsiao, wrote in a note. “Rather than competing on price, vehicle design, or entering new product niches, BYD appears to be looking for ways to leverage its scale and core EV technologies to differentiate in a highly competitive market.”
“By directly addressing one of the key hurdles to BEV adoption (charging speed), the company is offering customers a clearer path to switch from ICEs to EVs,” they wrote.
The new platform, which will underpin many of its future electric vehicles, could provide another boost for BYD, which has come from behind to rival Tesla Inc. as the world’s top EV seller. Tesla’s China shipments plunged 49% in February from a year earlier to just 30,688 vehicles, the lowest monthly figure since in July 2022.
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BYD has committed to building more than 4,000 charging stations across China to serve the newly upgraded EVs. It didn’t disclose a specific timeline or cost to complete the rollout. However, the company earlier this month raised around $5.6 billion in a share sale.
The speeds would be comfortably ahead of Tesla’s Superchargers, which can add up to 275 kilometers of range in 15 minutes. Tesla, however, has a much larger network of more than 65,000 Superchargers worldwide. Mercedes-Benz Group AG’s new entry-level CLA electric sedan unveiled last week can add 325 kilometers in 10 minutes of charging.
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