- Just days after BYD announced its intentions to roll out 15,000 megawatt public EV chargers across China, Executive Vice President Stella Li has confirmed the OEM’s intentions to bring the 1,000kW EV chargers to the European market.
- The move is expected to come within the next twelve months.
- While BYD’s megawatt public chargers could become the fastest on the European market, it won’t be without competition, with European CPO Ionity looking to roll out 600kW EV chargers onto its network from this year.
BYD’s megawatt charging will come to Europe
While 15,000 of these chargers are expected to be rolled out across China, BYD hasn’t placed a number on how many are set to come to Europe in the future. Speeds on BYD’s new chargers will reach a maximum power of 1,360kW, allowing compatible BYD EVs to take on a full charge in as little as five minutes – comparable to the time spent filling up an ICE car, but without the need to stand there pumping fuel.
So far in Europe, these megawatt charging speeds have been the reserve of the heavy electric vehicle industry. BYD is pinning its hopes on this technology being a game-changer for first-time electric car buyers, even if current ultra-rapid chargers are already fast enough for most use cases.
However, there are currently no BYD EVs sold within Europe supporting its own megawatt flash charging standards. In China, the only two BYD EVs able to take on the megawatt charging speeds are those built on its new Super e-Platform, namely the Han L electric saloon and Tang L electric SUV. BYD already sells variants of the Han and Tang in multiple European territories, so it remains to be seen whether these will be updated accordingly to match the charging capabilities of their Chinese-market cousins.
Stella Li’s target of rolling out this megawatt charging network in Europe within the twelve months highlights the rapid growth ambitions we’ve become used to seeing from BYD, eclipsing the development times seen by many European OEMs. BYD only unveiled its Super-E platform and megawatt chargers in March, and already we’ve seen its launch in China – and now an imminent European launch is on the cards.
