US being left behind in EV charging speeds as China goes sub-5 min to 70%
Hype merchants have a habit of overdoing it, but there's no denying that China is making the US look more than a little antiquated when it comes to electric vehicles. Some of that is due to a deep integration of connected services and an extension of the car as part of the owner's digital life-think additional infotainment screens and AI personal assistants, but with an Android phone-maker's cadence of updates rather than that of a traditional car company. Other advances sound more appealing. China's OEMs are in a battle over who can charge the fastest, and this week, Geely fired its latest salvo.
China might have a much younger driving culture than North America or Europe, but it has still been long enough to condition those drivers to how long it takes to fill a tank of gas. For all their many improvements over internal combustion engine vehicles-far greater efficiency, instant torque, very little NVH, more reliabiity, and so on-EVs do still take longer to recharge than it takes to refuel a car with a liquid.
At least until now, it seems.