Hyundai Wants 400 Kilowatt Charge Speeds—And Then Three-Minute Charging

• Hyundai says it’s working to make EV charging as fast as filling up a gas car—targeting about 3 minutes.
• The aim is partly to ease range anxiety, especially for drivers who can’t charge at home.
• To reach that speed, Hyundai is developing 400 kW charging tech and working on major advances in battery tech without just increasing battery size.

When you buy a modern Hyundai electric vehicle, you’re already getting a car with some of the fastest DC charging out there. A Hyundai Ioniq 5 (and its various Kia cousins) all use an 800-volt electrical architecture, so on a fast enough charger, they can juice from 10% to 80% in well under 20 minutes. Often, those speeds are the purview of much more expensive EVs.

But Hyundai says it’s not enough. Not when its EVs max out around 225 kilowatts and more options are coming to market with 400 kW speeds, and rivals in China are aiming for two and three times that. 

The chief of Hyundai’s new European development center, Tyrone Johnson, told the British publication Auto Express that making faster charging EVs will be key for winning people over from their proven gas cars. After all, those can refuel in a matter of minutes; under 20 may be great, but the idea of a wait at all is kind of a turn-off.

“The expectation from customers is that it will take three minutes to fill a car, the same as it does with an internal-combustion engine,” Johnson told Auto Express. “It’s maybe perception rather than reality, but they worry about range anxiety and whether they will suddenly need to drive 200 miles. The goal is to get to the same speed as ICE.” 

On a 350 kW fast charger, your average Ioniq 5 will go from 10% to 80% in 20 minutes, although I’ve done it in even less time. Most modern EVs are still in the 20-30 minute range, and some even go over that. But the rest of the pack isn’t standing still. Take the new Porsche Cayenne Electric, for example. With a max charging speed of 400 kW, Porsche claims a 10% to 80% charge can take as little as 16 minutes—although the carmaker doesn’t say what kind of charger that would require. While that’s a much more expensive EV than a Hyundai, the Korean automaker has to keep up—it has a reputation to maintain, after all.

The Auto Express report indicates Hyundai is testing 400 kW charging in its laboratories. Hyundai is also trying to boost electric range without having to just make the EV battery bigger, which would increase charging times—and weight, too. 

If Johnson is right and the target is really around three minutes, then Hyundai has a long way to go. In China, BYD can achieve five-minute fast charging right now, but only with a specialized 1,000 kW (or 1 megawatt) charging station and an EV capable of taking on that much power. And the upgraded Zeekr 001 is capable of charging at over 1.3 megawatts, needing less than seven minutes to go from 10% to 80%. But the EV space is all about progress—what’s on the road today is only a start compared to what’s next.

Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com