Picking up a BYD Atto2 in the morning

Do you need a home HV DC charger? That's a really unusual installation and won't be cheap at all. I'm struggling to imagine a use case that it's justified for.

It doesn't come with a CCS2 cable, no car does. That's for DC charging and is only fixed to a charger. You can get a Type 2 cable separately for using public AC chargers. I believe if should come with a 10A EVSE to charge at home. You won't be doing DC charging at home unless you want to spend $50,000+. The car doesn't support V2G, but does have an AC outlet (via the charging port) for plugging in small mains loads.

I live in a cyclone area. Ive got ~60Kw of stored energy. With no solar input ive got about 3 days energy if i put a V2H charger (Bi directional) i can then also use the stored energy from the EV in my home. FNQs energy infrastructure is held together with chewing gum n string. A 10 day outage after a tropical storm is not unlikely

So on the public CCS2 (HV DC) chargers you dont need your own cable?

1. No ccs2 charging cable. If you’re doing road trips you might need a cable for BYO stations but I’d check the route planners before purchasing any. 2. Yes you’ll get a 10amp charger with the car. 3. On long trip that you need to stop and charge, just charge to 80-90% (charging slows at these levels) and if it’s an easy stop, just top up and have a quick rest. As for your DC home charger, charging wise it’s over kill. However, power storage wise it’s a great idea. Just make sure you get one that has an AC charger as well, you’ll need it for battery levelling.

I don't have a BYD, but a Cupra Born, by VW. I got a Type 2 charger for AC charging when I bought the car. DC charging stations provide the charger, but I haven't tried a public charger. For installation at home, you have a few choices - A granny charger that uses a regular 10A wall socket, but charges at 1.78kWh. I paid $400 for mine in 2023. There are cheaper ones on Amazon and Kogan, but I'd buy from EVSE again if it were me. You can also get chargers that use a 15A wall socket if your garage has this type of wall plug. This charges at about 80% faster than the 10A. An actual EV wall charger, which should be (but doesn't have to be) the same brand as your solar inverter. I say it should be because if there's an issue the different companies will just point fingers at each other and resolving the issue can be difficult. These chargers are usually about $700 to $1500 plus remediation costs. These charge at about 7kWh. You may be thinking you'll need to rapid charge your BYD. This is almost never the case - keep the battery topped up as best you can. 7kWh would fill the battery from flat (again, which you would never do) in 7 hours. If you have 3 phase power you can get a 22kWh charger which would charge your BYD in 3 hours. Too much fast charging can reduce the battery's life however. Hope this helps. GL with your new car!

Fair enough. You'd need to make sure that both car and HV DC charger are compatible, that's a very niche thing to do at the moment. A quick Google says you're looking at roughly $5k uninstalled. Here's a link to an example https://growenergy.com.au/products/sigen-ev-dc-charging-module-25kw?variant=46078235771031

thanks mate, thats been invaluable. I was intending to integrate the battery with my home system to increase its capacity in the event of a multiday outage. FNQ has insufficient baseload power if the EHV supply from Rockhampton is cut.

The Atto 2 should come with a 8A aka standard wall outlet charger good for around 10km/hr of charging. It should also come with a V2L cable which plugs into the cars charging socket and has a 2 way power board on the other end. It will allow you to pull 2.4kW out of the car. The car will allow you to use all but the last 20% for this capability. The atto 2 has I believe a 11kW AC-DC converter in it for charging. The limiting factor will be the supply equipment aka EVSE or what people generally call the charger. In reality "the charger" is just a box of safety electronics all the smarts are in the car. You can get various combinations ranging from 6A to 32A and single phase and 3 phase depending on your needs. At home you'll use either the included charger and it would be fine if you're doing less than 100km/day roughly. if you want faster the options are single phase 15A/3.6kW, 32A 7kW or 3 phase 16A 11kW or 32A 22kW. all these higher power options would need an electrician to do the electrical work from the switch board. Public DC chargers don't do BYO cables. They are hard wired. Some like the 300kW+ units have liquid cooled cables. It might be handy to pickup a 5m "type 2 cable" these are used on public AC chargers as they are typically BYO cable. AC chargers supply that same 7/11/22kW that a dedicated home charger. Back to V2L/V2G If you're looking to use the car as a powerbank on wheels during a storm then there is the included V2L function I mentioned. It'll allow you to pull the top 80% of the car battery out at a maximum of 2.4kW. Think of it giving you the same kind of capacity as a cheap petrol generator. V2G is a different beast, very few home chargers do it yet. the SigEnergy system has a V2G capable 25kW charger module and there is a couple of others similar to it from Quasar and another brand I can't think of right by but all of them are in the 8-10k region. I'm in regional Vic myself so get where you're coming from. I already have a Fronius/BYD hybrid battery system on the house with 20kWh of battery. As a further backup in winter I've had an electrician install a 10A generator inlet socket on the wall of the garage to a 4 way power point inside the house. it's back to back and completely isolated from the rest of the household installation. This way I run an extension lead from the cars V2L adaptor to the inlet socket and can then run extension leads from the 4way to the fridge/TV/fish tank and run the critical stuff off the car if house battery goes flat. Likewise if you already have a generator inlet wired up to your house you could plug the car into that when needed.

Typically no, they have their own cable. Some require you to bring one but they are usually free or slow charge

Thanks for your response. WRT charging at home, I mis understood and was thinking that a CCS2 cable with the correct "wall box" (Bi directional) would allow me to "add" the 40Kw of available battery to my already existing 60Kw of Sungrow batteries. Its time I had a chat to my Electrical Contractor. Irrespective, the car is paid for and its coming home tomorrow as we have a tropical storm in the Coral Sea and whilst the current track map shows it not being an issue it might have a change of plan by Thursday.

No problems! The V2G space is still very much evolving. We now have a few DC based systems like the couple I mentioned but there is also an AC based standard that's not quite there yet in Aus. The EU has it and the wallboxes are more like 3K not 10K. given I already have the house battery I'm kinda holding out for that system. Apparently the Fronius Wattpilot Flex supports the AC V2G system via software update but I'll believe it when it's real and stick with my Wattpilot Go for now.

1. The Atto 2 will only come with an 8A 240V charging cable that plugs into a standard GPO - and a V2L cable that allows you to provide power from the car to electrical devices (I believe it has three 10A outlets). 2. No extra hardware needed for 240v charging, however the included charger is only 8A which is pretty slow. You could buy a 10A charger to squeeze a bit more out of it but I'd recommend 15A or even 32A if you can get a sparky to install a dedicated charger. 3. Have fun! My parents who had never even sat in an EV let alone driven one recently took delivery of an Atto 2 premium and they already love it. It's light years ahead of any of the combustion cars they've owned in terms of ride and quality, and the tech is amazing. Depending on how much highway driving the trip home is, you'll more than likely have to stop and charge once. Charging has improved a lot from the old MiEV days however the Atto 2 maxes out at about 80-85kW on a HV DC public charger so don't expect blisteringly fast speeds. Still good enough for 95% of people I reckon, and my MG doesn't charge any faster. 80-100kW seems to be the norm for lower end chinese models. I'm not sure if it's been officially confirmed as compatible, but with something like the Sigenergy system you should in theory be able to use bidirectional charging in future - I believe they've confirmed it works with the Atto 3 so I imagine the Atto 2 would be similar. Alternatively if your battery system allows a generator input you could probably just use the V2L output and bidirectionally charge your battery bank at 10A/2.4kW with the included V2L cable. Enjoy the car, it will be a huge upgrade on the MiEV and it probably represents the best value for money in terms of EV SUV/Crossover sized vehicles in Australia right now.

No, all DC chargers have tethered cables… if you see a charger with a BYO cable it is 100% an AC charger. The limitation will then be the cars max charge rates which are 7KW for AC and 82KW for DC

I reckon you can do it for less the 10k with sigenergy DC charger

I need to correct you. They asked about DC charging and ALL DC chargers have their own cable as they’re usually thick and water cooled. It’s only AC chargers that some require your own Type 2 to Type 2 cable.

Just to correct you, CCS2 is the entire charge port for DC fast charging. Type 2 is only the top half and is used for AC charging.

The car doesn’t currently officially support V2G like the majority of EVs at the moment, but the Atto 3 is being officially tested with special firmware by a small group and I would expect most other Byd cars to be tested and approved in the next year or so.

Your right sorry, I was thinking about public charging in general and confused the two

Crazy how similar your situation is to mine. Except I'm picking up an MG4 and I managed to get one from Cairns. I've got my sparky coming out this week to talk chargers. 20kw of panels on the roof and 20kwh of batteries. I figure even with a cyclone, there will be some charging from the solar panels so not too worried about VTL. Enjoy your Atto.

Can be more than 7kW with 3 phase

Congratulations!

sure, AC chargers can go up to 22kW on 3 phase systems but as I said the issue is the [cars max charge rate for AC, it is capped at 7kW](https://bydautomotive.com.au/brochures/BYD-ATTO-2-2025.pdf)

Congrats! Love my current Atto 1, the Atto 2 is probably the better car though. 1 - you’ll want to buy a Type 2 to Type 2 cable from Amazon for about $160. This will allow you to use the much cheaper Type 2 chargers at various parking garages, great if you’re out shopping in the city for the afternoon. 2 - you’ll get a wall socket charger with the car. Do note that it is quite slow and will give you about 2% per hour you charge it. 3 - Fiddle around with the settings menu and get it set up exactly like you want it. I recommend turning off the voice prompts for safety but keeping the rest on (this will make it beep rather than nag).  Bidirectional charging in Australia is not standardised yet - you will need to contact your energy provider and see if they are offering it and what cars they currently support.

Just FYI, Sigenergy have a bidirectional 25kW DC charger for about $6500

The Cable is supplied with the Car, should be no need to buy one unless it is not in the car

Interesting, thanks

G'day, I just drove the \~ 350k home from Townsville. You were spot on WRT the Tech, I'm going to stretch the grey matter getting my head around all that stuff. It drive beautifully, its got heaps of grunt, its quiet. I've got to get used to the ACC, Lane Keeping Assist etc etc. I drove Townsville to Tully (209k) and came down to 38% charge remaining. I recharged to 99% in about 56 minutes and then did the rest of the trip up onto the Atherton Tablelands (152k) on about 55% charge. The climb is about 230m with a couple of crazy ravines around the North Johnstone and Beatrice Rivers on the Palmerston Highway. The vehicle handled it with ease. Now I just have to read the manual about 20 times