Tesla is having a rough start to 2025. Apart from a drop by 14.5% in car sales from Q4 2024 in the U.S., a 49% fall in sales in Europe, and incidents of panels delaminating on Cybertrucks causing accidents, there have been numerous accounts of vandalism against Tesla showrooms and cars across the U.S. And now Tesla Superchargers are losing out to BYD’s new flash-chargers.
Just last week, news from China about an imminent revolution in electric vehicle (EV) charging has Tesla bosses, including Elon Musk, more concerned than ever.
New BYD flash-chargers can recharge 250 miles in 5 minutes
News out of CarNewsChina revealed that the world’s biggest electric vehicle carmaker, BYD, has announced that its new ultra-quick charging ‘megawatt flash-chargers’ can recharge up to 250 miles of range in just five minutes—for BYD EVs that can accept that level of power—which is around four times faster than Tesla’s Supercharger network.
Last year, BYD reported it produced just over 4.3 million “new energy vehicles”, up 41% from a year ago, including 1.77 million EVs and 2.5 million plug in hybrids. In fact, in 2024 BYD just cleared Tesla’s production figures of fully electric vehicles in 2024, building 1,777,965 compared with Tesla’s 1,773,443.
BYD plans to deploy flash-chargers to 4,000 locations across China
Coined ‘flash chargers’ for short, BYD’s new system charges at a maximum output of 1,360 kW, where as Tesla’s latest V4 superchargers can only manage a maximum output of 325kW. BYD’s new ultra-fast charging network is set to deploy at over 4,000 EV chargers across China this year, allowing EVs to be charged as quickly as gasoline-powered cars. BYD’s news apparently gave Tesla a shock last Monday, as the carmaker’s share price fell 4.8%.
A 100% tariff on BYD EVs will keep this system out of the US
While it will be slow to gain momentum and will require huge start-up costs, this technology has the potential to change the landscape of charging infrastructure over the next few years.
However, we will not be seeing this charging network in the U.S. any time soon given that you cannot buy BYD cars in America yet and will not be able to for a while to come, due to the current 100% restrictive tariffs on Chinese car imports.