China's energy and auto giant BYD has announced an ultrafast electric-vehicle charging system that it says is nearly as quick as a fill-up at the pumps. BYD, China's largest EV maker, said Monday that its chargers can provide a full charge for its latest vehicles within five to eight minutes—roughly the amount of time needed to fill a fuel tank, per the AP. The company says its 1-megawatt flash chargers can provide power that will last close to 300 miles, reports Quartz.
BYD, whose name stands for "Build Your Dreams," says it plans to build more than 4,000 of the new charging stations across China, in what Axios calls a "breakthrough" in the industry. That outlet notes that details on the battery used in BYD's vehicles are still murky. "We believe this is another sign that BYD is undergoing a strategic shift," Macquarie Capital analysts wrote in a note, per Bloomberg. "Rather than competing on price, vehicle design, or entering new product niches, BYD appears to be looking for ways to leverage its scale and core EV technologies to differentiate in a highly competitive market."
The Wall Street Journal reports that BYD's shares in Hong Kong increased by as much as 6% early Tuesday before falling back to 3.2%. Shares for rival Tesla, meanwhile, fell about 4.8% on Monday in the US. Tesla has been faltering in EV sales, announcing earlier this year that its sales dropped in 2024, a first for the automaking giant in more than a decade. Last month, Tesla's shipments fell by nearly 50%, to just over 30,000 cars—a number that hadn't been seen since July 2022. BYD churned out slightly more EVs than Tesla last year, 1,777,965 to Tesla's 1,773,443. The Chinese automaker has already started presales of its Han L sedan and Tang L SUV, coming out in April with a price tag starting at just under $38,000. (More BYD Co. stories.)
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