Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD has announced that it will roll out its new ultra-fast "Flash Charger" charging network on a large scale across Europe, accelerating its entry into the European automobile market. The first batch of charging stations have been launched in Germany and the United Kingdom. According to the plan, BYD will build about 3,000 such fast charging piles in Europe by the end of next year.
According to calculations by the Financial Times, the construction cost of each charging station is approximately 580,000 euros (approximately 670,000 US dollars), which means that the total investment scale of the entire network is approximately 2 billion US dollars. The rated power of these charging stations is as high as 1,500 kilowatts, which is much higher than the 500 kilowatt V4 super charging piles currently deployed by Tesla in Europe. However, Tesla already has about 20,000 charging piles in Europe, giving it a clear first-mover advantage. BYD said that because these fast charging piles first charge the batteries in the station, and then output high-power current from the batteries to the vehicles, they can recharge the battery pack during low hours at night, thereby reducing the immediate load pressure on the public power grid.
In terms of compatibility, any electric vehicle equipped with a standard CCS charging interface can be charged using BYD's Flash Charger. However, in order to truly unleash the peak charging capacity of 1,500 kilowatts, it is currently limited to models equipped with BYD’s latest “Blade Battery”. As far as the European market is concerned, there is currently only one model that meets this condition - the Denza Z9 GT, which sells for about 115,000 euros (approximately US$133,000). On the new fast-charging network, this car can charge the battery from low to 70% in about 5 minutes, significantly shortening the recharge time.
In recent years, BYD has been approaching and surpassing Tesla in global electric vehicle sales many times. This announcement of heavy investment in building a high-power public charging network in Europe is regarded as an important step in its multi-faceted advancement in products, energy replenishment infrastructure and brand influence. As more new models equipped with blade batteries enter the European market and the goal of building charging piles is gradually implemented, BYD hopes to use this fast charging network to further enhance users' confidence in pure electric travel and accelerate its share expansion in the European electric vehicle market.