How China's superfast charging cars are leaving American EVs in the dust

On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti

WBUR

News, On Point, Npr, Talk Show, Daily

4.3 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 9 April 2026

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

An electric vehicle battery that charges almost as fast as it takes to fill a tank of gas. And it might soon be available almost everywhere except the United States. How China's superfast-charging electric vehicles are leaving American EVs in the dust.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for this podcast comes from Is Business Broken, a podcast from the Marotra Institute at BU Questrum School of Business. In a recent episode, the show explores how artificial intelligence is transforming healthcare and what that means for patients, providers, and the business of care. Stick around until the end of this podcast to preview the episode.
0:23.6	WBUR Podcasts, Boston.
0:31.4	This is On Point.
0:32.7	I'm Megna Chakrabardi.
0:33.7	So you're thinking about buying an electric vehicle but aren't quite ready yet because,
0:39.3	well, yes, cars are actually really expensive right now. But more specifically, there's maybe
0:44.2	the range anxiety issue. Or perhaps even more common, you see all those folks at the charging
0:51.4	stations just sitting there for a long time. Maybe on their phones,
0:58.1	maybe eating, doing something to pass the interminable time it takes to juice up their batteries.
1:03.7	While you roll into the gas station, sometimes even on fumes, but you fill up the tank,
1:09.8	pop into the convenience store for a snack and drive away in like 10 minutes.
1:14.5	You look in the rear view and you see those sad souls and their Teslas waiting, even at the supercharging stations for sometimes as long as half an hour.
1:25.3	Life is short. Who wants to wait around that much? Well, today, I am here to tell you that Chinese carmaker, B.Y.D, has some news. Zetong Zhang joins us. He reviews electric vehicles on his YouTube channel, Zatong, China on the ground, and he's in Beijing. Welcome to OnPoint.
1:47.2	Hi, Magna. Thanks for having me. Okay. B.Y.D. says it has a new very fast-charging EV. How long
1:54.7	does it take to charge this battery to full from almost empty? From almost empty to 70% in five minutes and to 97% in nine minutes.
2:06.3	Oh my gosh.
2:08.3	How is this even possible, Zetong?
2:11.5	Well, all thanks to the BID's second generation of their blade battery.
2:16.0	If you know about battery safety, you know that BID
2:19.7	is very famous for that. You know, say from punctures, they're not burning up or anything, and now
2:26.7	the second generation is now going to be world famous at fast charging. Well, flash charging, actually,
2:33.4	because that's like super fast. Now, you've seen
	...

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