BYD plant 20.000 Schnelllade-Stationen zu bauen. Ist der Batteriewechsel nun dem stärksten Konkurrenten gegenüber gestellt?
BYD, which is used to making spectacular moves at the beginning of the year, focused on "energy charging" in the spring of 2026 and coined the slogan "Let charging be as fast as refueling."
On the evening of March 5th, BYD presented the second - generation Blade battery and the "Fast Charging in China" strategy.
The measurement data from the press conference shows that the second - generation Blade battery can be charged from 10% to 97% in just 9 minutes at room temperature. The newly developed fast - charging station has a peak power of 1,500 kW per charging gun. By the end of 2026, it is planned to build 20,000 fast - charging stations across the country.
In recent years, BYD has always made sensational news at the beginning of the year. At the beginning of 2024, it put forward the slogan "Electric mobility is cheaper than gasoline" and initiated a long - term price comparison for electric vehicles. At the press conference on driver assistance a year earlier, BYD pulled the threshold of driver assistance systems into the market segment below 100,000 Yuan, thus intensifying the competition in driver assistance. Why does BYD return to the old battlefield of energy charging now?
After the withdrawal of subsidies, the entire market is waiting for a new incentive. By focusing on energy charging, BYD aims to some extent at a new group of customers who have not bought an electric vehicle yet due to slow charging, difficulties in charging in cold temperatures, and concerns about energy charging. Today, range anxiety is no longer the central reason for the purchase decision. "Energy charging efficiency" is the new market boundary. Where will BYD take the war?
BYD wants to launch a blitzkrieg in energy charging
At the press conference on the evening of March 5th, BYD focused on energy charging and emphasized two key points.
First: The presentation of the second - generation Blade battery.
Similar to when it put forward the slogan "Electric mobility is cheaper than gasoline", BYD has now coined the slogan "70% in five minutes, 97% in nine minutes". At room temperature, the battery can be charged from 10% to 70% in 5 minutes and from 10% to 97% in 9 minutes. Under extreme cold conditions of minus 30 degrees Celsius, it only takes 3 minutes longer than at room temperature to charge the battery from 20% to 97%, about 12 minutes in total.
The significance of these figures is that the charging speed is faster than that of most vehicles with an 800 - V platform on the current market at room temperature. The energy density of the battery is 5% higher than that of the first generation. The pure - electric model of the Denza Z9GT with this battery has a range of 1,036 km according to CLTC.
BYD has also improved the warranty conditions. If the capacity retention of the battery is less than 77.5% within 6 years or 150,000 kilometers, the battery will be replaced for free, and the cells have a lifetime warranty.
Second: The implementation of the "Fast Charging in China" strategy.
In connection with the above battery technology, BYD has developed a new generation of fast - charging stations with a peak power of 1,500 kW per charging gun and announced that it will build 20,000 fast - charging stations across the country by the end of the year, of which 18,000 will be built as "stations within stations".
Another 2,000 are independent fast - charging stations on highways, covering almost one - third of highway rest areas. Before the May 1st holiday, the first 1,000 stations will be completed. The goal is that in 90% of urban areas, a fast - charging station can be reached within 5 kilometers, and there is a station on average every 100 kilometers on highways.
However, the implementation of BYD's ambitious "Fast Charging in China" plans is not easy.
According to official data, BYD has built 4,239 fast - charging stations so far. The goal for the end of the year is 20,000 stations. This means that BYD has to build more than 15,000 new stations in about 9 months, which corresponds to an average of more than 55 stations per day.
Wang Chuanfu said on stage: "Building fast - charging stations is as easy as installing an air conditioner." His confidence is based on the construction method of the 18,000 "stations within stations". BYD uses the existing locations of operators and installs its own fast - charging devices without the need for additional land ownership or increasing the grid capacity. By installing energy storage, peak loads can be reduced. Theoretically, this bypasses the most difficult problems in site selection and capacity increase.
But this "easy" has to be put in quotation marks.
According to estimates from industry reports, the construction cost of a conventional super - charging pillar can be up to 2 million Yuan, which is five times the cost of a normal fast - charging pillar. The payback period of the investment can be 5 to 8 years. BYD's "stations within stations" model can reduce the conversion costs by using energy storage, but the energy storage itself is also a cost factor.
To avoid the huge burden on the power grid caused by the current power of 1,500 kW, BYD stores energy in energy storage during off - peak hours. Therefore, the maximum capacity of the energy storage will also affect the service quality of BYD's fast - charging stations. Theoretically, multiple energy storage units in a station will be charged cyclically to ensure subsequent service performance. But the costs for infrastructure expansion will significantly burden BYD's cash flow.
In other words, the use of energy storage can solve some problems of fast - charging stations, but it also brings BYD similar challenges as NIO's battery - swapping stations, namely the "heavy assets".
Besides money, the schedule is also important. Even for the simplest "stations within stations", operators have to be negotiated with individually, devices installed, energy storage configured, and the system integrated into BYD's own fast - charging app.
If any step is not handled properly, this blitz attack could turn into a long - term war of attrition.
How much will battery swapping be affected?
Automobile manufacturers, who have coined the slogan "Electrification is completed, the second part of intelligence begins" throughout the year, have returned to electrification. This time, the battlefield has expanded from a single technology to direct competition in the field of energy - charging systems.
On the one hand, the energy - charging battlefield in 2026 is a race, and technological differentiation is accelerating. The laggards are under great pressure.
In the past two years, the 800 - V/5C technology has been the standard for fast charging of electric vehicles and was once a symbol for mid - and high - end vehicles. BYD's second - generation Blade battery is equipped with a full - range 1,000 - V high - voltage architecture and supports a maximum fast - charging speed of 10C.
This technological threshold is not easy to overcome. Automobile manufacturers have to perfectly coordinate the four areas of battery, motor, power chip, and thermal management system, and none of these elements can be missing.
The silicon carbide power chip is the core of the entire high - voltage system. Its voltage resistance and switching frequency directly determine the upper limit of the charging speed. The problem is that most automobile manufacturers source their silicon carbide chips from general suppliers. These chips are standard products made for the entire industry and are not individually optimized for the specific voltage platform of a certain automobile manufacturer. The performance is limited to the parameters of the standard products.
Independent development of all components is a great challenge for small and medium - sized automobile manufacturers. This means that the differentiation of fast - charging ability will be a continuous process and cannot be balanced in a short time.
On the other hand, when BYD raises the upper limit of charging time to 9 minutes and the range to 1,000 kilometers, a voice starts to be heard in the market: Is battery swapping still necessary?
These doubts are not unfounded. In the past, the core advantage of battery swapping was "speed". One could drive away with a full battery in 3 minutes, while fast charging could take half an hour or longer. But when fast charging reduces the time to single - digit minutes and the charging speed approaches the refueling experience for the first time, the "speed" of battery swapping is no longer the unique competitive advantage.
The battery - swapping camp is currently led by NIO and CATL. NIO has long been a consistent researcher of the battery - swapping model. During the Chinese New Year holiday in 2026, NIO broke the daily service record for battery swapping for five consecutive days. On February 22nd, 2026, the total number of daily battery swaps was 178,000 times. NIO plans to build another 1,000 battery - swapping stations in 2026.
At the end of 2024, CATL presented a comprehensive solution for "chocolate battery swapping" and jointly developed standardized battery - swapping models with several automobile manufacturers to reduce the repeated costs of battery - swapping infrastructure. CATL built about 1,400 battery - swapping stations in 2025 and plans to build a total of 3,000 stations in 2026.
After the presentation of BYD's second - generation Blade battery and fast - charging plan, the competition between charging stations and battery - swapping stations has increased. Two days after BYD's press conference, Li Bin, the founder of NIO, appeared on the CCTV talk show "Dialog" and emphasized that the advantage of battery swapping lies not only in speed but also in the fact that the separation of the vehicle and the battery solves the problem of battery lifespan. "This systematic advantage fundamentally eliminates customers' concerns about battery aging."
And on the real - world level, the actual implementation of BYD's fast - charging stations will also determine the direction of this war.
Li Bin said again in the CCTV show that there is no fundamental contradiction between super - charging pillars and battery - swapping stations, but that both solutions meet the energy - charging needs in different application scenarios. Subsequently, Li Yunfei, the head of brand and public relations at BYD, also said: "Battery swapping and fast charging are two different models, but both are good. It is a variety of solutions that ultimately lead to the same goal."
In the energy - charging battlefield in 2026, no single method will dominate the market. What really determines the market structure is not only the technology but also its ability to adapt to customers' application scenarios, the power grid system, and the business model.
The fight for new customers
Why does BYD focus on super - charging pillars this year?
One reason is the critical sales situation. In February, BYD's sales result was not satisfactory. The monthly sales volume was 190,000 vehicles, a 41% decrease compared to the previous year. Behind this result are two factors: on the one hand, the shift of the Chinese New Year, and on the other hand, the change in the tax exemption for electric vehicles from full exemption in the past to a 50% reduction. The withdrawal of subsidies has exhausted the demand prematurely.
The market needs a new incentive. On the day when the news of the press conference was released, BYD's stock price rose by more than 8%. The fluctuations in the stock price are a short - term reaction. The real challenge lies in the long - term market - among the people who have not bought an electric vehicle yet.
According to data from the China Passenger Car Association, the retail penetration rate of electric vehicles in the entire passenger car market in December 2025 was 59.1%, an increase of 9.6 percentage points compared to the previous year.
This means that out of 100 car drivers, 59 would already choose a pure - electric vehicle or a hybrid vehicle, but 41 still prefer gasoline vehicles. Even though there are now many electric vehicles below 100,000 Yuan on the road and it is generally known that the electricity price is cheaper than the gasoline price, almost half of the people still choose a gasoline vehicle. The reason is simple: electric vehicles are not as practical as gasoline vehicles yet.
Li Rong is a typical car driver. He works in Beijing and has repeatedly thought about buying an electric vehicle in the past two years, but he has always been worried about the difficulty of charging on long - distance trips. Last year, when he was considering changing his car, he drove back to his hometown with a fellow - townsman who has an electric vehicle. After experiencing that it took almost an hour to wait at a highway charging station, he finally gave up this plan.
There are many potential car drivers like Li Rong. The "McKinsey China Automotive Consumer Insight 2025" shows that due to the unpleasant experiences in energy charging, some pure - electric vehicle owners want to switch back to gasoline vehicles, and the proportion of these owners has increased.
In the city or on short weekend trips, the economy and applicability of electric vehicles are generally recognized. But when a family has only one car and has to drive long distances inevitably, energy charging remains a problem.
Li...