- China’s BYD is shifting its overseas charging business into overdrive.
- The EV powerhouse wants to install thousands of its 5-minute Flash Chargers in Europe by the end of the decade.
- Then, the company is looking to Canada to expand its footprint.
BYD, the Chinese company that has set its sights on becoming the world’s largest automaker, wants to blanket Europe with thousands of its megawatt-capable EV chargers in the next few years.
The carmaker said it wants to build no fewer than 3,000 of its latest Flash Chargers across the continent by 2027. As a reminder, BYD’s dual DC fast chargers can deliver up to 1,500 kilowatts—that’s 1.5 megawatts—of power, but not all cars can accept such a high input.
Photo by: BYD
All EVs fitted with a CCS2 charge port will be able to recharge at BYD’s European Flash Chargers, but only cars powered by the Chinese company’s latest-generation Blade Battery will be able to take full advantage of the immensely powerful dispensers. So far, though, there’s just one car sold in Europe that can rise up to the challenge, the $133,000 (€115,000) Denza Z9GT, which can go from 10-to-70% state of charge in just five minutes.
In the grand scheme of things, BYD is still a relatively small player in the European EV charging game. By comparison, Tesla has over 20,000 DC fast chargers providing energy to European EV drivers, but the Superchargers are nowhere near as powerful as BYD’s newest dispensers. The latest Supercharger V4, for example, which is still quite rare, can deliver up to 500 kW, while the older V3 stalls are capped at 250 kW.
All this being said, BYD is just starting out in this part of the world. After Europe, the Chinese company is planning to expand its ultra-fast charging network to Canada. According to a recent LinkedIn job posting that surfaced on Reddit, BYD is currently looking for a Business Development Manager who can start work on deploying the Flash Charging network in Canada.
There’s no word on when the first dispenser will become operational, but it’s probably sooner rather than later, seeing how the automaker is looking to get a foothold in the Canadian market after the government slashed import fees and imposed a 49,000-vehicle quota for Chinese-built cars this year.
Getting back to Europe, the first Flash Chargers are already online in Germany and the United Kingdom, with thousands to follow in just a few years.