China’s new 1500 kW charger turns Europe’s fast chargers into museum pieces
While Europe still debates whether 50 kW counts as fast or merely semi fast charging, and celebrates 350 kW chargers with the enthusiasm of children unwrapping a new toy, China quietly flipped the board. BYD introduced its second generation charging station, delivering a level of power that would make an average substation break into a sweat. The figure is 1500 kW.
If you are used to charging an electric car while eating a three course meal and getting through the opening chapters of The Count of Monte Cristo, BYD’s new system demands a rethink of your pace of life.
Thanks to a current of 1500 amps, the system adds around 400 kilometres of range in just five minutes. In practical terms, you may not even finish queueing at the service station before the battery is full. Charging time now depends less on how fast electrons move and more on how quickly you manage to plug the cable into the car.
BYD did not simply bolt a massive transformer to the ground. Its second generation stations sit firmly at the sharp end of charging technology.
Liquid cooled cables keep connectors and wiring from overheating under extreme loads. An integrated battery buffer, now half as large again as before, allows more than 20 cars to charge in succession without collapsing the local grid. A T shaped layout supports two charging guns per unit, with intelligent power distribution depending on the vehicle’s architecture, whether it runs on 500 or 1000 volts.
While charging networks in Europe are still being planned, BYD already had more than 500 megawatt class stations operating across 200 Chinese cities by the end of 2025. This year alone, the company plans to add another 15,000 stations with its partners.
BYD also rolled out a strikingly simple idea. Owners can rent out their home chargers to other users via an app, a sharing economy move that feels several steps ahead of the old world car industry. By the time traditional manufacturers catch up, Chinese cars may well be doing something altogether more ambitious.
So if long charging times were your last argument against electric cars, it just expired. The real question now is when this technology reaches our side of the world, or whether Europe remains parked beside its 22 kW posts, dreaming of what might have been.
Europe and China are no longer moving at the same speed. One is still discussing standards. The other is already living in the next chapter.
