From the breathless headlines emerging from China’s electric-vehicle industry in recent months, you’d think the laws of physics are different on the two sides of the Pacific.
In the U.S., Ordinary Joe is stuck in the slow lane in the Tesla Model S, with a measly 560 kilometers of driving range — or less on a cold day when you have the heating on. Meanwhile in China, Extraordinary Zhou can go 1,050 km in her Nio ET7, one of half-a-dozen local EVs with ranges above 700 km.
That’s not all. BYD in March announced a breakthrough in charging, with new capabilities that could pump 400 km of range into a battery in five minutes, making recharging an EV as quick and efficient as refueling a gasoline car. Not to be outdone, Contemporary Amperex Technology, or CATL, last week unveiled an even more advanced system that could add 750 km in five minutes.
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