• BYD teams up with two Chinese charging powerhouses to deploy 15,000 1,000-kilowatt (1-MW) EV chargers in China.
• It already has two models capable of charging at that rate, with plans to launch more soon.
• BYD is China’s leading EV charging company, but competitors have announced they are working on 1.2- and 1.5-MW charging solutions.

When BYD revealed its one-megawatt (1,000 kW) five-minute chargers in mid-March, it broke the internet. Everybody was covering it, arguing whether such high charging speeds were really needed and whether having a large network of such chargers was even feasible. But BYD didn’t do it for the publicity and is pushing ahead with bold plans to have thousands of these chargers up and running in China.

It already has more than 500 1-MW chargers operational today, which cover the most important urban centers in the country, but it’s partnering up with third parties to vastly expand the network. It recently announced it was joining forces with companies Xiaoju Charging and LongShine.

The former has pledged to build or upgrade 10,000 charging points to 1 MW, while the latter has committed to an additional 5,000, although a clear time frame for when they would be ready was not provided.

Both partner companies are big players on the Chinese EV charging scene with their own large networks, and while they will build the chargers, BYD will supply energy storage to enable 1 MW charging even in areas where the electricity grid wouldn’t support it.

Only cars built on BYD’s new Super e-Platform 2.0 support 1 MW charging, and only two such models are currently available: the Han L sedan and Tang L SUV, both launched in April. Both models sold over 10,000 units in their first full month on sale, indicating that ultra-fast charging is a feature that buyers in China are seeking.

We saw the former charging from such a station in China and were blown away by how quickly its range was being replenished. It really is about as quick as putting fuel in a combustion car, eliminating one of the biggest downsides that drivers say was keeping them from going electric.

BYD isn’t the only Chinese automaker with big ultra-fast charging plans. Xpeng has already deployed 480-kW rapid chargers in China, with its goal to reach 800 kW with its next generation of chargers. GAC Aion is not among the big Chinese automakers mentioned by the Western press, but it is a charging powerhouse with its 6C chargers, meaning they charge six times quicker than the battery pack’s capacity, so a 100 kWh EV would charge at 600 kW.

Zeekr, the Geely-backed automaker looking to establish itself as a household premium name in Europe, is working on a 1.2 MW charger, while tech powerhouse Huawei wants to take it to 1.5 MW. But while competitors are just talking about these ridiculously high charging speeds, the fact of the matter is BYD has a considerable lead with the hundreds it already has in operation and the thousands more it has coming (as well as EVs that can actually use all that charging power).