China is dominating the electric vehicle market globally, accounting for more than 70 percent of global manufacturing in 2024, according to the International Energy Agency. Its E.V. makers have pulled ahead of U.S. car companies on both price and technology.

中国在全球电动汽车市场占据主导地位，根据国际能源署的数据，2024年，中国在全球产量中占比超过70%。中国的电动汽车制造商在价格和技术上都领先于美国汽车公司。

Case in point: the five-minute charger.

一个很好的例子是五分钟快充技术。

This past spring, two major Chinese companies announced breakthroughs in battery technology that will enable electric vehicles to drive hundreds of miles on a five-minute charge. After traveling to China to test drive new fast-charging cars sold by BYD, Patrick George, the editor in chief of InsideEVs, said Chinese models were “pretty much a generation or two ahead of the rest of the world.”

今年春天，两家中国大型企业宣布了电池技术的突破，这将使电动汽车充电五分钟就足以行驶数百公里。《InsideEVs》杂志主编帕特里克·乔治在前往中国试驾比亚迪推出的新款快充汽车后表示，中国的车型“差不多比世界其他地区领先一两代”。

It’s easy to imagine how five-minute charging might transform U.S. drivers’ attitudes toward electric vehicles. Widely available power sources and a charge time roughly the same length as a stop to fill up a gas tank would go a long way to alleviate the range anxiety many cite as a hurdle to going electric.

不难想象，五分钟快充技术可能会如何改变美国司机对电动汽车的态度。广泛分布的充电电源，再加上与加油时间大致相当的充电时长，将在很大程度上缓解许多人所说的“里程焦虑”——这是影响人们选择电动汽车的一大障碍。

But car buyers in the U.S. aren’t likely to get access to five-minute charging any time soon, analysts say. Here’s why.

但分析人士表示，美国的购车者短期内可能无法用上五分钟快充技术。原因如下。

The cars

汽车方面

BYD’s fast-charging system depends on two things: a vehicle capable of charging quickly, and a charger that can deliver power from the grid to match.

比亚迪的快充系统依赖两个条件：一辆能够快速充电的汽车，以及一个能从电网输送匹配功率的充电桩。

BYD, which is now the world’s largest producer of electric vehicles, has developed a battery that has a peak charging capacity of 1,000 kilowatts, also known as a megawatt. This peak rate can add enough charge in five minutes to drive for about 250 miles. Most E.V.s on the market in the U.S. can charge at peak rates of 400 kilowatts or less.

目前已是全球最大电动汽车生产商的比亚迪研发出了峰值充电功率达1000千瓦（即1兆瓦）的电池。以这一峰值速度充电五分钟，所充入的电量大约能支持车辆行驶400公里。美国市场上的大多数电动汽车，峰值充电功率都在400千瓦或以下。

“This was a big leap, almost a tripling of others in the industry,” said Ryan Fisher, head of charging infrastructure at BloombergNEF, a research firm.

“这是一个巨大的飞跃，几乎是行业内其他产品的三倍，”研究公司彭博新能源财经的充电基础设施负责人瑞安·费希尔说。

Fisher said that the car’s price point in China of around $37,000 was also far lower than those of new fast-charging cars marketed elsewhere. A Tesla Cybertruck sold in the U.S. starts at around $70,000.

费希尔表示，这款车在中国的售价约为26万元，也远低于其他地区销售的新款快充汽车。美国销售的特斯拉Cybertruck起售价约为7万美元（合人民币50万元）。

While other automakers may eventually figure out how to build megawatt charging systems, it won’t happen overnight, Fisher said.

费希尔说，尽管其他汽车制造商最终可能也会掌握兆瓦级充电系统的制造技术，但这不会在一夜之间发生。

As we reported last week, Chinese companies have leaped ahead of the rest of the world in high-quality patents for many clean energy technologies, including batteries.

正如我们上周所报道的，在包括电池在内的许多清洁能源技术的高质量专利方面，中国企业已经领先于世界其他国家。

(Read more from our series on how China is beating the U.S. in the race to develop the energy of the future.)

（阅读更多关于中国如何在发展未来能源的竞赛中击败美国的系列文章。）

Right now, very few Chinese-branded cars are sold in the U.S. because of prohibitively high tariffs that both President Trump and his predecessor have put on Chinese E.V.s and other products.

目前，在美国销售的中国品牌汽车几乎没有，因为特朗普总统及其前任都对中国电动汽车和其他产品征收了高得令人却步的关税。

巴西圣保罗一个停车场内的比亚迪充电站。

The chargers

充电桩方面

BYD has promised to build 4,000 “megawatt flash charging” stations in China to support its new cars with 1,000-kilowatt charging capacity.

比亚迪承诺将在中国建设4000个“兆瓦级闪充站”，以支持其具备1000千瓦充电能力的新车。

Building these high-powered stations may be a smoother process in China. There, the government treats E.V. charging stations as crucial infrastructure, similar to how the U.S. treats highway maintenance, said Bill Russo, founder and chief executive of Automobility Limited, a Shanghai-based consulting firm.

在中国制造这些高功率充电站的过程可能会更方便一些。总部位于上海的咨询公司Automobility Limited的创始人兼首席执行官罗威(Bill Russo)表示，在中国，政府将电动汽车充电站视为关键基础设施，就像美国对待公路维护一样。

“That allows them to build a high-power charging hub directly into the grid, sometimes even to high-voltage lines, bypassing a delay that would typically plague a local utility upgrade in the U.S.,” Russo said. “Things just have a straighter-line path to getting done,” he added.

“这使得他们能够直接在电网中建设高功率充电枢纽，有时甚至能接入高压线路，绕过美国地方上相关设施升级时通常会遇到的延误，”罗威说，“他们有一条更直接的推进路径。”

In the U.S., a Biden-era effort to speed the build-out of E.V. chargers was paused this year by the Trump administration, and then reinstated this month. The Transportation Department has said it now plans to make it easier for states to use federal money to build E.V. chargers. Private companies are working to open new charging stations, too.

在美国，拜登时代一项旨在加快电动汽车充电桩建设的计划今年被特朗普政府暂停，本月又恢复了。美国运输部表示，现在计划让各州更易获取联邦资金以建设电动汽车充电桩。私营公司也在努力建造新的充电站。

BYD executives have talked about rolling out megawatt charging stations in Europe, where Chinese companies may be able to gain a toehold despite tariffs, Fisher said. Ionity, a company focused on fast charging, has said it will roll out megawatt-capable charging stations in Europe later this year, though the power will be split among a few parking stalls.

费希尔表示，比亚迪高管已谈及在欧洲推出兆瓦级充电站，尽管面临关税，中国企业或许仍能在欧洲站稳脚跟。专注于快充领域的Ionity公司表示，将于今年晚些时候在欧洲推出具备兆瓦级充电能力的充电站，不过其功率将是由几个停车位共享的。

What’s next

接下来会怎样

It’s unclear how much Trump’s aggressive rollbacks of policies that support the E.V. industry will slow its growth in the U.S. A $7,500 tax rebate for new E.V. purchases will expire next month, and the administration has challenged California’s ability to mandate a transition away from the sales of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035.

特朗普在大举撤销支持电动汽车行业的政策，这会在多大程度上减缓该行业在美国的发展，目前尚不清楚。新电动汽车购买者可享受的7500美元税收减免将于下个月到期，而且特朗普政府还对加州规定“2035年之前停止销售新燃油车”的权限提出了质疑。

Without policies that support a transition away from combustion engines, domestic car companies are not incentivized to invest heavily in E.V.s, Russo said.In the long run, he said, a major factor in China’s success today has been its upfront investment in its charging network.

罗威表示，如果没有支持从内燃机向新能源转型的政策，国内汽车公司就不会有动力在电动汽车上大量投资。他说，从长远来看，中国如今取得成功的一个主要因素是其在充电网络上的前期投资。

“The thing that I don’t think we give them enough credit for,” Russo said, “is they put all this investment in infrastructure before there was even a market for this stuff. Because they knew without the investment in infrastructure, there would never be a market.”

“我认为在有一点上，我们没有给予他们足够的认可，”罗威说，“早在形成市场需求之前，他们就已经在这类基础设施上全力投入。因为他们知道，如果不在基础设施上投资，就永远不会有市场。”