BYD, one of the fastest-growing car makers and one of the biggest battery manufacturers, earlier this year announced the release of its second-generation Blade battery, which, when charged with the company’s latest Flash Charging, achieves a 10% to 70% charge in just 5 minutes.
At the time of the announcement, it also shared its 2026 goal to have 20,000 Flash Chargers up and running by the end of the year.
Now, in a post on its Weibo page, BYD shared data showing it’s about to surpass 50% of its 2026 rollout goal, with 10,000 sites in operation as of August 2026. These sites span over 320 cities in China, with the milestone site being in the company’s home city of Shenzhen.
BYD post said the milestone was reached at a Flash Charge Station in Longhua, Shenzhen and added: “This achievement sets three records for Chinese automakers: the largest number of self-built charging stations in China, the fastest construction of 10,000 charging stations, and the widest geographical coverage of charging stations nationwide.”
At the same time, the company shared some key metrics around this program, highlighting that the network has dispensed 210 million kWh in just under 6 months.
This is off the back of 1.83 million users with almost 33% driving non-BYD EVs, highlighting the greater impact of this relatively new network.
BYD’s Flash Charging system includes the company’s latest Blade Battery 2.0 with Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) chemistry. At room temperature, it can charge the new Blade Battery from 10% to 70% in just 5 minutes. It can also charge these cars from 10% to 97% in 9 minutes at ambient temperatures.
In extreme cold temperatures of -30 C, a 10% to 97% charge takes around 12 minutes, which is a big boost in cutting charging times under these conditions.
The company’s rollout of thousands of new flash charging sites across China began earlier this year and incorporated the new T-shaped charging gantries, designed to charge vehicles at scale.
Various models with the latest Flash Charging tech are already available to buyers, including multiple models officially becoming some of the world’s longest-range EVs, with over 1,000 km of CLTC range.
The Denza Z9GT was the first of these models, unveiled in March with the system’s official launch, but since then, multiple Ocean and Dynasty series models have also launched with over 1,000 km of range, using Blade Battery 2.0 tech.
Other more affordable models are also being rolled out, with consumer and BYD fleet-friendly models with a starting price of under $A25,000, making this latest tech available to the masses a lot sooner than originally thought.
BYD wants customers to use this Flash Charging technology and has been offering 12 months of free Flash Charging to early customers with all compatible models.
This technology is also heading to international markets, with The Driven reporting earlier in the year that sites have opened in Europe.
The latest announcement shows BYD’s rollout is moving fast, with over 50% of its 20,000 sites already commissioned.
This will boost confidence among new and future EV drivers, helping tens of thousands of buyers consider an EV that can charge faster than filling up at expensive servos.
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