BYD to install 300 EV chargers in the UK that charge as fast as petrol pumps

The chargers can add 250 miles of range in just five minutes

BYD has confirmed the Flash Chargers will be installed in the coming months (BYD)

The world’s largest ‘new energy’ car producer has announced its 1,000KW (or 1MW) Flash Chargers are coming to the UK this year, with 300 of them to be installed around the country.

BYD’s UK country manager Bono Ge has confirmed that the Flash Chargers will be installed in the coming months and will be capable of adding 250 miles of range in just five minutes. By comparison, Tesla says that its current Supercharger network in the UK can add 172 miles of range in 15 minutes.

The UK is now BYD’s biggest market outside of China, with over 51,000 cars sold last year. It’s expected that the first of the BYD Flash Chargers will be installed at one of the brand’s 125 UK dealers initially, moving on to public sites later.

The arrival of the Flash Chargers is likely to coincide with the launch of the first car that will be able to make full use of them. BYD plans to launch its upmarket Denza brand in the UK in the summer, most probably at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

The Denza Z9 GT is set to arrive this summer to rival Porsche's Taycan and Lotus's Emeya (Steve Fowler)

The first Denza model to arrive will be the Z9 GT, a rival to the likes of the Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo and Lotus Emeya . The Z9 GT makes use of BYD’s Super e-Platform and gets a 100kWh battery and three electric motors – one on the front axle, two on the back – combining to make 952bhp. It promises a 0-62mph time of around 3.4 seconds.

Following the Z9 GT, which will also be available as a plug-in hybrid, Denza will offer the rugged B5 off-roader and D9 luxury people mover.

Ge was talking at the launch of the ninth BYD to be launched in less than three years of UK operations, the BYD Sealion 5 DM-i. This is a plug-in hybrid that Ge describes as being “the price of a petrol, with the tech of DM-i”. BYD claims a total battery and petrol range of 631 miles for the Sealion 5 with a starting price of £29,995.

This year will also see production start at BYD’s first European factory in Hungary, with the first models rolling out of the plant in quarter two, according to Ge. Initially, two of the brand’s biggest sellers, the BYD Dolphin Surf and Atto 2, will be produced in Hungary with two more models to follow.

Next up from BYD, though, is a major facelift for the car that launched BYD in the UK three years ago, the Atto 3. It’s expected to offer an improvement in performance and range, while it could also cost more to give it more distance between itself and the new Atto 2.

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BYD’s total of 4.6 million new energy vehicles sold globally in 2025 included just over one million cars sold outside of China – an increase of 145 per cent. And with 2.3 million of that overall total being all-electric models, it meant that BYD overtook Tesla as the world’s biggest maker of all-electric vehicles.