GoKawiilChina’s BYD will aim to take on Porsche and BMW in the European luxury car market with a premium electric vehicle that can be charged in just five minutes.
BYD, which overtook Tesla as the world’s largest EV maker last year, first demonstrated its “flash charging” technology, which enables an EV to be charged almost as quickly as filling a car with petrol, a year ago.
The Z9GT model, part of the premium Denza brand, can be 70 percent charged in five minutes and be almost full in 12 minutes, even in temperatures as low as -30° C.
The vehicle has a range of up to 800 km and will be launched in Europe next month and in the UK in the summer. Pricing is yet to be revealed.
BYD’s international chief Stella Li said the Z9GT marked an important milestone as it began the global rollout of flash charging.
The Chinese carmaker has aggressively expanded in the UK and Europe with affordable EVs and plug-in hybrids as sales in the home market have come under pressure from a government crackdown on pricing competition.
BYD sales in China plunged 41 percent in February compared with the same month in 2025, marking its biggest fall in five years. Bernstein analyst Eunice Lee predicted that its March deliveries would remain under pressure, with a recovery expected in the second quarter as BYD launches more models with flash charging.