The speeds you get when charging an electric car can vary wildly. Factors such as the ambient temperature, demand on the chargers, the state of battery charge when you plug in, whether you’ve pre-conditioned the battery or not… It all makes a big difference. 

Now, the next generation of rapid charging has arrived with ‘flash’ charging. This tech brings EV chargers that can deliver up to 1,500kW – or you’ll also hear this referred to as 1.5 megawatts. For some context the most powerful ultra-rapid chargers in the UK and Europe have delivered up to 400kW, until now, so it’s a big jump in power. 

How fast can you charge an EV from a flash charger? 

These flash chargers will deliver some 100 miles of range in around two minutes, while a 400kW rapid charge (with an EV capable of matching that charging performance) will do the same top-up in more like five minutes. 

Chinese car maker, BYD, is first to roll out its flash chargers in the UK, and will be the first to offer a car capable of making full use of this charging potential. It intends to have around 300 BYD flash charging stations across the UK by the end of 2026, and some 3,000 across mainland Europe. 

The first car that will be able to charge at these stations, utilising the full charging potential, will be the Denza Z9 GT. This new Porsche Taycan rival gets a 1000 volt platform and a 122kWh second generation LFP ‘BYD Blade Battery 2.0’. Plug it into the flash charger, and it will manage a 10-70% charge in five minutes, or it’ll charge to 97% in under ten minutes. Interestingly, this latest generation BYD Blade battery doesn’t even need pre-conditioning, and is said to be ready to make full use of this super-rapid charging infrastructure at any time. 

We’ll have to spend some time with the cars – and the chargers! – before we can confirm if that’s the case, but I went to a demonstration of the charging tech and the Denza really did charge just as quickly as those claimed figures. It’s not really any slower than filling up a petrol car. 

Can the UK national grid support EV flash chargers? 

BYD certainly says that it’s not a problem with its own flash chargers – although there are other 1,500kW chargers coming from other providers. 

Diego Pareschi, director of charging for BYD, explained that “the BYD Flash Chargers don’t rely heavily on a grid connection like a traditional high powered EV charging station. We have battery storage next to the power converter, [which boosts the charging speed]. That’s the magic. So, we don’t need a transformer upgrade, we use a low-level grid connection, and this also allows us to install these where you might not be able to have a high powered charger [that relies solely on mains power].”