BYD’s 5-Minute EV Charging: Why Doesn’t America Have It Yet?

We can't have nice things
- Mostly because we vote against having nice things.
  
  Because deep down we know we don't deserve nice things
  (but mostly because billionaires think they'll be the only ones paying for it)

@Sunshine
Probably because the cost of the chargers will be really, really high and only two cars supports them so far.
Also, while it's technically impressive what BYD have done, the real world need for MCS is somewhat limited.
Personally we drive around 50000 km every year in our Kona 64kWh model, and it has a maximum charging speed on a good day of 77 kW, in winter around 55 kW.
However, given that it charges every night on a 11 kW home charger, it hardly ever sees a fast charger - perhaps 10 times a year, unless our summer holiday is a 3000 km roadtrim through Germany and their neighbouring countries.
Still, even then we tend to find slow destination chargers and charge through the night.
- You’re absolutely correct that this is not needed for routine usage. Level 1 charging is sufficient for most routine cases, and level 2 charging is sufficient for the rest.
  The main use case for this super-fast technology is for cases where the vehicles are in constant use, such as taxis and long-haul trips. These are doable with level 2/3 but not ideal and are still areas where ICE are dominant.
  So while not strictly required, this technology will be useful to make further inroads if we can get the infrastructure to accompany it. Which as the article suggests, is no small feat.
  (Unrelated, I have the same car as you. Ioniq gets all the attention but the Kona is such a great EV!)
  
  @ninthant in some ways I get the feeling that MCS-capable cars are just waiting for long haul electric trucks to get some traction in the market. Here the MCS makes a lot more sense and there is a financial gain to be had for the company if they can increase the practical daily range.
- MCS
  Mind-blowing Charging Speeds?
  
  @threelonmusketeers 😁
  Megawatt Charging System. It is a standard meant for heavy haulers with its own specialized plug, but adding a CCS plug for these hyper fast charging cars would make a lot of sense.
  The MCS plug supports up to 3,5 MW, so the CCS plug would need to be limited to e.g. 1 MW and heavily cooled, or both cable and plug would melt.

“So that [charging in 12 minutes] is actually the number we’re solving for,” he said. “Do we need to charge in five minutes? The answer is probably no.”
Saying "we don't need faster charging" isn't very convincing - especially when only the competition offers it. If Mercedes-Benz were the one offering megawatt charging, it would suddenly be marketed as the next big thing.
And I believe that we need to solve megawatt charging for a breakthrough of electric trucks and buses.

The private sector hasn’t figured out how to get the people to pay for it for them.