BYD is bringing its 5-min 'Flash' electric car charging to Canada • Hacker News Board

Re: BYD is bringing its 5-min 'Flash' electric car charging to Canada

#121

Post by 8note » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 4:34 PM UTC

yabones wrote: post #90

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, this is hiding a lot of geographic reality. You're using the word Canada pretty broadly here, when the reality is that the left-half of the country past Ontario (or arguably Quebec) is pretty shit in this regard. Quebec has that hydroelectric power production. And their power grid is cheap and pretty clean. And their government and populace is highly pro-EV and yeah, it's great. Ontario a bit second to that b…

The situation out west is indeed rough. Saskatchewan still burning coal and Alberta... Being Alberta. It's not to say we can't fix it, those are both places where you can build plenty of solar and wind power for very cheap. These problems are very political, but also very fixable. I think (well, hope) once it becomes clear that cheap Chinese EVs are here to stay the tide will begin to turn. In terms of total lifetime…

alberta is alberta because provinces are pushed into competition on using their local resources.

you cant fix it without nationalizing control over BC and quebec hydro and alberta oil, and using them to canada's benefit rather than the individual provinces'

that constitutional reform isnt gonna happen

Re: BYD is bringing its 5-min 'Flash' electric car charging to Canada

#122

Post by z2 » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 4:56 PM UTC

harrall wrote: post #115

gcanyon wrote: post #5

As an American, I'm going to be really sad when we miss this transition. Maybe there's still time?

Ford is probably going to do it. They’re never the first but they consistently bring new major shifts in cars to the working class, without making some major compromises to the car (BYD) or being expensive (Tesla). They: - Brought affordable V8 engines to the working class - Got rid of the V8 and brought much more fuel efficient turbocharged vehicles to the working class - Made the first and a popular hybrid SUV, whi…

I'm confused on the choice of Ford as a champion. Yes SUVs and trucks dominate in the US and that's Ford's focus, but I'm not sure what they learned from the commercial failures that were the Escape Hybrid and the F150 Lightning so that they will get it right and democratize EVs to the masses the second time. Or how their incremental innovations on ICE will translate to the "from the ground up" redesigns needed for a good EV. Or how the elimination of their more affordable cars in the name of chasing higher margin trucks will help bring things to the working class, as Ford's average sale price is now north of $55k, more expensive than the average Tesla.

Also, BYD started as a battery company, not a consumer tech company. Their choice of cell-to-body integration certainly makes repairs hard, but it adds to safety, range, weight, in addition to saving on cost. That looks to me like a very deliberate trade-off, not a sacrifice in the name of undercutting everyone. Tesla did it for their 4680 cell Model Y too.

Re: BYD is bringing its 5-min 'Flash' electric car charging to Canada

#123

Post by pornel » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 5:03 PM UTC

Yizahi wrote: post #102

gcanyon wrote: post #5

As an American, I'm going to be really sad when we miss this transition. Maybe there's still time?

As a European, US will probably overtake Europe on EVs soon and fast. You have two unique differences to many other countries - a lot of population lives in private houses or condos, where they can just plug in EV in a regular socket without much changes. And US has a sprawling net of private solar installations which will stimulate EVs even more as soon as people will wake up to bills they incur. And lastly US has a…

This problem is solved with infrastructure and legislation.

It's something that improves almost overnight - your situation can change from being stuck without a place to charge to having it completely solved. All it needs is chargers installed where you need them.

The "what about condos with no driveway" problem seems hard only because you're trying to project a suburban solution to an urban environment, which makes no sense regardless of EVs.

You don't need a driveway and a solar panel per person, you just need plugs wherever cars stay parked. As EV adoption increases, it's less of a niche need and more of how parking works. There are curb-side chargers. Lamp post chargers.

Charging doesn't have to be done overnight either. There are destination chargers at supermarkets, malls, gyms, office centers.

An EV driven in a city needs to be DC charged for ~20 minutes once a ~week. This is pretty easy to fit in a weekly routine of a car-dependent person, where infrastructure exists.

The infrastructure exists where it breaks through the chicken-egg problem. Nobody will roll out 500 charging plugs in a parking garage if there are only handful of regular EV users, and people won't buy EVs when their town has only one public charger (broken).

But once there's the critical mass, the infrastructure gets used, pays for itself. You get choices and competition instead of putting up with your only crappy option.

For that reason I expect EU to get momentum that US won't. EU has thrown money at the problem, and in some cities it's already very good, close to being a completely solved problem, while the US is a decade behind and has ideological objections against catching up.

Re: BYD is bringing its 5-min 'Flash' electric car charging to Canada

#124

Post by ErneX » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 5:09 PM UTC

christkv wrote: post #72

madaxe_again wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s the exact model they follow in Brasil - they ship over the car without seats or a steering wheel, install them in Brazil with a Chinese labour force, declare it Brazilian made, pay no tariffs on the parts or the final vehicle. There’s an aspirational goal of at least 50% Brazilian parts, but its currently 0%.

Ban them. Beyond cars is the fact that somehow its ok to buy unregulated chinese made products following no safety standards of the EU on temu, shein, aliexpress etc allowing them to skip all the costs of producing safe consumer goods in the EU. Ban all of them or put a 1000% tariff on all of the items. To long the EU has been followed the financial interests of German industry and their dealings in China. Since that…

How about we compete instead? It’s likely that for them it’s going to be cheaper to manufacture in some Europeans countries than in China soon enough.

It’s appalling. And suggesting we will fix things by banning stuff in my opinion is just delaying the inevitable anyway. They are making better vehicles at better prices.

Re: BYD is bringing its 5-min 'Flash' electric car charging to Canada

#125

Post by harrall » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 5:22 PM UTC

z2 wrote: post #122

harrall wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ford is probably going to do it. They’re never the first but they consistently bring new major shifts in cars to the working class, without making some major compromises to the car (BYD) or being expensive (Tesla). They: - Brought affordable V8 engines to the working class - Got rid of the V8 and brought much more fuel efficient turbocharged vehicles to the working class - Made the first and a popular hybrid SUV, whi…

I'm confused on the choice of Ford as a champion. Yes SUVs and trucks dominate in the US and that's Ford's focus, but I'm not sure what they learned from the commercial failures that were the Escape Hybrid and the F150 Lightning so that they will get it right and democratize EVs to the masses the second time. Or how their incremental innovations on ICE will translate to the "from the ground up" redesigns needed for a…

I believe the Escape Hybrid actually sold really well and was in high demand, but they actually ran into supply chain issues.

The F-150 Lightning I think was too early for its time... an electric truck doesn't work unless it's mostly for leisure (e.g. Rivian). If you are towing or moving a lot of weight, your range drops a lot.

The Ford F-150 Lightning was just an experiment... not a real effort by Ford. If you look at how much money they spent on marketing aluminum bodies or turbocharged engines, it's a lot more because that's something they believed in.

The issue with high repair cost is that you actually end up paying for it via higher ownership costs... via insurance rates. So you might pay upfront very little but every time someone has their car repair or totaled, the insurance companies have to pay for the full cost of the car and this ends up being subsidized via insurance rates.

Re: BYD is bringing its 5-min 'Flash' electric car charging to Canada

#126

Post by kimos » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 5:25 PM UTC

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #82

yabones wrote: post #79

Seems like a good plan. Canada has the third largest hydroelectric power production in the world, and quite a bit of nuclear, so let's use it properly. People talk about transmission infrastructure like it's difficult, but we're the ones who made the ~5,000 KM HVDC system that feeds the northern US from James Bay! I don't see why we can't quickly electrify transportation, it's the kind of project Canada seems to be p…

I mean, this is hiding a lot of geographic reality. You're using the word Canada pretty broadly here, when the reality is that the left-half of the country past Ontario (or arguably Quebec) is pretty shit in this regard. Quebec has that hydroelectric power production. And their power grid is cheap and pretty clean. And their government and populace is highly pro-EV and yeah, it's great. Ontario a bit second to that b…

Manitoba is almost 100% powered by hydro, and exports something like 7TWh of power a year. You’re drawing your line in the wrong spot.

Re: BYD is bringing its 5-min 'Flash' electric car charging to Canada

#127

Post by kimos » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 5:30 PM UTC

blondie9x wrote: post #2

Does anyone know if they have looked at how charging quickly impacts the longevity of the battery? Can the cells be damaged by the rapid increase in temperature and current?

It’s worth knowing the answer, but also the answer shouldn’t matter for most cases.

Regular users should only use these stations for road trips. Nearly all charging should be done with L2 chargers.

Re: BYD is bringing its 5-min 'Flash' electric car charging to Canada

#128

Post by cmrdporcupine » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 5:36 PM UTC

8note wrote: post #121

yabones wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The situation out west is indeed rough. Saskatchewan still burning coal and Alberta... Being Alberta. It's not to say we can't fix it, those are both places where you can build plenty of solar and wind power for very cheap. These problems are very political, but also very fixable. I think (well, hope) once it becomes clear that cheap Chinese EVs are here to stay the tide will begin to turn. In terms of total lifetime…

alberta is alberta because provinces are pushed into competition on using their local resources. you cant fix it without nationalizing control over BC and quebec hydro and alberta oil, and using them to canada's benefit rather than the individual provinces' that constitutional reform isnt gonna happen

I mean, I was born in the 70s in Alberta and hoooooy boy, I remember the reaction to the NEP even as a kid, which was a modest (and clumsy and malformed) attempt by Trudeau Sr to do some of what you describe.

If there was even a vague intimation of any of that happening now, the hair-brained small Alberta seppy minority would quadruple in size and funding.

Re: BYD is bringing its 5-min 'Flash' electric car charging to Canada

#129

Post by cmrdporcupine » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 5:45 PM UTC

kimos wrote: post #126

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, this is hiding a lot of geographic reality. You're using the word Canada pretty broadly here, when the reality is that the left-half of the country past Ontario (or arguably Quebec) is pretty shit in this regard. Quebec has that hydroelectric power production. And their power grid is cheap and pretty clean. And their government and populace is highly pro-EV and yeah, it's great. Ontario a bit second to that b…

Manitoba is almost 100% powered by hydro, and exports something like 7TWh of power a year. You’re drawing your line in the wrong spot.

Fair point. I love Manitoba (though I haven't been there in 29 years) but I often forget about it.

Re: BYD is bringing its 5-min 'Flash' electric car charging to Canada

#130

Post by alkonaut » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 6:04 PM UTC

stymaar wrote: post #84

alkonaut wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if in average you have 2 cars charging for 5 minutes every hour, you can draw 166kW continuously instead of having bursts of 1MW consumption) You definitely need to have that to not load the grid with 1MW, but the question still remains what the capacity of the battery is. A charger that promises a 5 minute 1MW charge BUT which can only do it once per hour and then falls back to 200kW doesn't seem as special as a c…

I was definitely using simplifying assumptions to get my point straight here. Setting the actual parameters for such systems is an engineering job, I just wanted to illustrate that the goal isn't going to have the charging station off the grid during peak hours thanks to the batteries, and more about managing the burden you put on the grid.

Yeah that's why it probably needs to be more than 1 charge in the battery. Unless you do N back-to-back charges during peak time, the charger isn't utilized enough. And to do N back to back charges you need about N car batteries as buffer.