BYD Has Already Built 5,000 Of Its New Megawatt ‘Flash’ Charging Stations

• BYD began rolling out its second generation “Flash” chargers about a month ago.
• This network is capable of charging EVs at 1.5 megawatts—even faster than Tesla’s new Semi chargers.
• BYD has already opened up 5,000 of the stations, it announced on social media. 

If you’ve been keeping up with BYD lately, you’ve probably seen the recent hubbub about its Flash Charging network. Those suckers are fast—they basically make recharging your EV as quick as getting gas.

No, this isn’t some future technology. It’s already here. BYD has not only announced the tech, but it has been rapidly installing them across China. Just a month after announcing its newer, faster Flash Chargers, the automaker completed the install of its 5,000th such station across the country.

A BYD spokesperson confirmed to InsideEVs that the 5,000 number includes only its second-generation Flash charging stations, as opposed to the earlier megawatt chargers BYD announced last year.

Photo by: BYD

BYD announced its 5,000th Flash Charging station on Weibo earlier this week. This marks the 297th city across the country with a BYD Flash Charger, which should speak to just how quickly the automaker is making the tech accessible to the public.

This station is part of its “Flash Charging China” initiative, which is a commitment to open 20,000 of these Flash Charging stations around the country before the end of 2026. This commitment also includes 18,000 commercial sites that are a collaborative effort between BYD and other local charging network operators. So to be clear, this isn’t just BYD going off on its own and scooping up all new sites and infrastructure. But that shouldn’t detract from the wildly fast deployment of the charging network.

So what is this “Flash Charging,” exactly? Well, let’s just say that if you’ve an EV owner in America, you should be jealous.

Flash Charging is BYD’s branding on top of its ultra-fast public chargers. Essentially, these T-Shaped charging stations have the ability to pump out an astounding 1.5 megawatts of juice to EVs, far beyond the typical 150-kilowatt or 350 kW chargers that most folks plug their cars into today. Cars equipped with BYD’s new Blade 2.0 battery system—which are already on sale—can charge from 10% to 90% in just nine minutes.

Ultimately, BYD is planning to pepper these stations in high-traffic corridors in key areas. The goal is to deploy one station every 100 kilometers (62 miles) along highways. And to meet its broader ambitious goal of 20,000 stations by the end of the year, BYD needs to be ready to build out 1,600 each month.

The speed and tech that is being deployed by BYD today feels very like the early days of the Tesla Supercharging network. The brand is looking to build out fast, and (like like the OG Supercharging network) it’s a huge advancement in both fast charging tech and in quality-of-life for EV owners. Tesla has also recently begun to deploy Megachargers chargers, too, though the scale and scope is much different than BYD’s deployment. 

The original Supercharging network helped to make Tesla a viable household brand thanks to the ease of charging. With the advancements that Flash Charging brings owners, this push could help to provide a boost to BYD in an increasingly competitive home market. Moreover, the chargers are going global too.