Participants mark the completion of BYD’s 2,000th highway flash-charging station on September 24, 2026, about 3 months ahead of its year-end target. Credit: BYD
- BYD met its full-year target for highway flash charging stations ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday travel rush.
- The company had built 10,000 flash charging stations by late August, with its overall full-year target still at 20,000.
BYD (HKEX: 1211) has completed its 2,000th highway flash charging station in China, meeting its construction target about 3 months ahead of the original year-end deadline and before the upcoming holiday travel rush.
BYD announced the milestone on its official Weibo account on Thursday, calling it another important step in its “Flash Charging China” strategy. The company had previewed the completion a day earlier.
Under the plan BYD announced on March 5, the company aims to build 20,000 flash charging stations by the end of 2026, including 2,000 along highways.
The early completion of the highway target adds charging infrastructure ahead of China’s Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays. Charging queues have long been a major challenge for Chinese electric vehicle drivers on long-distance trips.
The 2,000 highway flash charging stations cover nearly one-third of China’s highway service areas, with an average spacing of just over 100 kilometers, CnEVPost previously reported.
The highway stations are part of BYD’s broader flash charging network. As of August 28, the company had built 10,000 stations in China and reaffirmed its target of reaching 20,000 by year-end.
As of September 24, BYD has built a total of 11,586 flash charging stations in China, covering 341 cities.
Under its earlier plan, the 18,000 stations beyond the 2,000 highway sites will be built in partnership with charging network operators. It also plans to build 6,000 flash charging stations overseas.
The new-generation flash chargers BYD unveiled in March deliver a maximum output of 1,500 kW per connector. Paired with its second-generation Blade Battery, the system can charge from 10% to 70% in 5 minutes and from 10% to 97% in 9 minutes at normal temperatures, BYD said.
The network is also open to electric vehicles from other brands, but actual charging power depends on each vehicle’s capabilities. Not all models can achieve the charging speeds advertised by BYD.
The flash charging network had delivered a cumulative 210 million kWh of electricity and served more than 1.83 million users, according to figures BYD released on August 28. Owners of other brands accounted for nearly one-third of users.
The expansion comes as Chinese automakers intensify their competition in ultrafast-charging technology. Geely Auto (HKEX: 0175) unveiled its Geely Smart Charging technology and fifth-generation chargers on September 23.
Geely’s fifth-generation chargers have a peak output of 2,250 kW, compared with the maximum output of 1,500 kW per connector for BYD’s flash chargers.
Geely said the Lynk & Co 10 and Zeekr 001 equipped with its Shendun Golden Battery charged from 10% to 70% in 4 minutes and 30 seconds in tests.
Geely’s system took just 4 minutes and 30 seconds to charge from 10% to 70% in real-world tests, beating BYD’s 5 minutes.
