Geely developing 1800kW electric chargers, could launch them overseas

Geely will soon reveal an ultra-fast charging station, which will one day take on BYD's Flash Charging network.

Speaking at the British launch of the EX2, Geely UK chief Michael Yang told Autocar the company was just months away from revealing its first completely solid-state battery in China. 

On top of this, the company is also "developing an ultra-fast charging facility, where efficiency is rated at 1800kW". Currently the fastest public chargers available in the UK and Australia top out at 350kW. 

Geely's ultra-fast charging system uses on-site batteries to facilitate such high charging speeds. Rival BYD also uses a similar setup for its Flash Charger sites in China. 

The Flash Charging system maxes out at 1500kW, and on a compatible vehicle can top up the battery from 10 to 70 per cent in five minutes, while getting to 97 per cent should take around nine minutes.

BYD plans to have around 20,000 Flash Charging sites available in China within a few years, and this year will begin rolling out the first of 3000 Flash Charging locations throughout Europe, with most of these open to all vehicles, not just BYD or Denza models.

Mr Yang indicated Geely is looking at launching ultra-fast charging cars in the UK, and consequently will work with its charging partners to roll out ultra-fast chargers in the country.

He didn't give a timeline when this might happen, though, as Geely has a "more pragmatic approach" to its UK business, with today's priority being allowing "as many people access to charging as we can, with a wall charger at home".

Although Geely UK's initial tranche of ultra-fast charging locations will be launched by partners and carry their branding, Mr Yang thinks there will be a time when the automaker will have its own network of Geely-branded charging sites.

Despite being Geely-branded, these locations will be open to all marques as "a charging station is just like a petrol station, and no petrol station can make enough money by providing a service to only [a single] brand or model".

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