The Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD has unveiled a new charging system that it said could make it possible for EVs to charge as quickly as it takes to refill with petrol.
BYD’s Hong Kong-listed shares gained 4.1% on Tuesday to hit a record high of 408.80 Hong Kong dollars, as investors bet that the company could strengthen its already commanding position as one of the world’s biggest electric carmakers.
Two new BYD models will be capable of receiving peak charging power of 1,000 kilowatts (kW), enabling them to travel 400km (249 miles) on a five-minute charge, the BYD founder, Wang Chuanfu, said at an event livestreamed from the company’s Shenzhen headquarters on Monday.
BYD was the world’s second-largest producer of battery electric vehicles in 2024, marginally behind Tesla, but the Chinese company also sells hundreds of thousands of plug-in hybrids that combine a battery with a petrol engine. Wang, who is often described as China’s answer to the Tesla boss, Elon Musk, started the business as a battery maker in 1995, before starting car manufacturing in 2003.
Charging speeds of 1,000 kW – or 1 megawatt (MW) – would be twice as fast as Tesla’s superchargers, which offer up to 500 kW. Fast-charging technology has been seen as key to increasing EV adoption.
The news underlines the intense competition for the already struggling Tesla, whose stock has plunged following Musk’s championing of hard-right causes in Europe and the slashing of the US federal workforce as part of his work with the Trump administration.
Besides missing sales targets, Tesla faces heightened investor pressure to produce autonomous vehicles, which Musk has promised but failed to deliver for about a decade. It is also facing increased competition with more affordable EV models, including those produced by BYD and other Chinese companies.
Tesla’s share price slumped by 5.5% on Tuesday, adding to a 4.8% decline on Monday. Its valuation has fallen by 44% during 2025 so far, with investors worried about declining sales, and the possible hit to Tesla’s reputation from Musk’s close alignment with Trump.
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In a move aping Tesla, BYD also said it would install a network of 4,000 of its own “flash-charging stations” across China to allow for the fast charging. The company did not specify the timeframe, nor say how much it would invest in building such facilities. To date, BYD owners have largely relied on other automakers’ charging facilities or public charging run by third-party operators.
“In order to completely solve our users’ charging anxiety, we have been pursuing a goal to make the charging time of electric vehicles as short as the refuelling time of petrol vehicles,” Wang said. “This is the first time in the industry that the unit of megawatt has been achieved on charging power.”
The new charging architecture will be initially available in two new EVs, the Han L sedan and Tang L SUV, priced from 270,000 yuan ($37,330).
Tesla has offered its superchargers in China since 2014, and BYD’s smaller Chinese peers, such as Nio, Li Auto, Xpeng and Zeekr, have also been investing extensively and building charging facilities for years.
