BYD is taking its megawatt charging push to Europe. The Chinese carmaker has confirmed plans to install roughly 3,000 of its Flash charger units across the continent by 2027, with the UK getting 300 stations of its own by the end of next year — and a price target that would undercut today's ultra-rapid networks by a wide margin.
What BYD Confirmed
The European Flash rollout will concentrate on high-traffic corridors and motorways, with BYD targeting a Flash site roughly every 50 kilometres on busy routes. In the UK, the plan calls for 300 stations housing at least 600 chargers by the end of 2027 — hardware that would instantly become the fastest public charging in the country.
| Region | Plan | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Europe | ~3,000 Flash charger units, roughly one site every 50 km on busy corridors | by 2027 |
| UK | 300 stations with 600+ chargers | end of 2027 |
| Canada | groundwork under way (local charging-network hiring) | not confirmed |
Five Minutes From 10% to 70%
Flash chargers peak at 1,500 kW — three times the 500 kW of Tesla's latest V4 Supercharger hardware, currently the fastest equipment Tesla deploys. At a live UK demonstration attended by Auto Express, a BYD Z9 went from 10% to 70% charge in five minutes, then on to 97% in roughly another four. Those headline rates require vehicles engineered for megawatt charging, such as the Z9 used in the demonstration; cars with lower charging ceilings draw what their own hardware allows.
The stations themselves are built around on-site battery storage, which fills overnight when grid electricity is at off-peak prices. That design lets BYD deliver megawatt peaks without an equally heavy grid connection — and it is central to the aggressive pricing plan.
Aiming Below 50p per kWh
BYD's UK boss Bono Ge says the company wants Flash pricing to land below 50 pence per kilowatt hour in the ideal case. That would significantly undercut established ultra-rapid networks in the UK, where megawatt-class speed was, until now, not available at any price. The overnight-charged buffer batteries are what make the target plausible: the network buys cheap electricity and sells it back at peak speed during the day.
What It Means for European Tesla Owners
For Tesla owners the immediate practical impact is limited. No current Tesla can charge at anywhere near megawatt rates, so a 1,500 kW stall would not fill a Model Y any faster than a V4 Supercharger does today. The competitive pressure is the point. Tesla has spent 2026 widening access to its European network — including opening Superchargers to Volvo drivers across 29 countries — and BYD is now attacking the two pillars that made the Supercharger network the European benchmark: corridor coverage and price.
With BYD also laying groundwork to bring Flash charging to Canada, the company is clearly positioning its charging network as a global selling point for its EVs — exactly the playbook Tesla wrote a decade ago, now executed at three times the power.