On 6 March 2026 BYD announced its second-generation Blade battery and its flash charging technology. BYD’s own figures: 1500 kW through a single gun, 10% to 70% in five minutes, 10% to 97% in nine minutes at normal temperature. At minus 30 degrees, 20% to 97% takes only three minutes longer than at normal temperature.
Nine minutes is not an improvement on petrol. It is the same order of magnitude as a fuel stop, which is a different thing entirely.
Two conditions have to be met before that reaches anyone driving in Europe. The car needs the second-generation battery, and there has to be something to plug into. My car meets neither, and it never will — this is not a retrofit, and nothing in BYD’s announcement suggests otherwise.
The second condition is the interesting one, because in Portugal it was never really about hardware.
What BYD actually announced
The figures above are BYD’s, from the newsroom page linked at the bottom, and the translation is mine.
On the battery itself, BYD claims energy density up more than 5% over the first generation, a capacity retention rate improved by 2.5%, and safety testing beyond the new national standard. The cells keep what BYD calls a lifetime warranty.
On the charging network, BYD gives numbers for China: 20,000 flash charging stations nationwide by the end of the year, with the first 1,000 highway flash stations before the May holiday. For everywhere else, the page says flash charging stations land overseas at scale by the end of 2026. It names one car, the Denza Z9GT, and puts its range at 1,036 km.
That is the whole of what the primary says about markets outside China. One sentence about scale, one date.
Condition one: does the car have the second-generation battery?
Mine does not. It is a 2020 Han, and the battery in it is the generation that was current when it was built. A battery pack that charges at 1500 kW is not a part you fit to an older car — the cells, the pack, the thermal management and the charging hardware are the product. I have seen nothing from BYD offering a retrofit and I would not expect to.
So the honest version of the first condition is: this is for cars bought later, not cars owned now.
In Europe, “later” has already started, at a price. The Denza Z9 GT with the second-generation battery was shown in Europe in April 2026 from €115,000, and reached the UK in July. The cars that carry the same battery at ordinary money — Seal 06 GT, Seal 07, Seal 08 — launched in China.
So the technology is in Europe. It is just in one car that costs more than mine did, and mine was over €70,000, which was already the expensive kind of Chinese car. 🙂
Condition two: is there anything to plug into, and at what price?
Here is where my own numbers matter more than BYD’s.
Six years, 60,000 km, and the fast charging reality on this car in Europe has been 50 kW in 90% of cases, and about 40 minutes to get to half. Not because the car cannot take more in theory, but because that is what the chargers I actually reach deliver. Against that baseline, nine minutes is science fiction.
And the price. In 2024 I was paying about €1 per kWh at Ionity here in Portugal. That is my own bill, not a survey, and it is the most I have paid anywhere in the country.
€1 per kWh.
On a car that takes 50 kW when it is lucky.
Ok sure.
Denza, BYD’s premium brand, says it will install 300 flash chargers in Spain and 50 in Portugal by the end of 2027, on CCS2, open to other brands, at under €0.50 per kWh. I could not find those Iberian figures in any Chinese primary source, so treat them as Denza’s claim as reported by the Spanish press in early July 2026, not as something I can trace to BYD’s own newsroom.
Under €0.50 against the €1 I was paying is a factor of two. Which is the first genuinely interesting number in this whole story, and it is the one with the least evidence behind it.
Why has Portugal been different, and what changed in August 2025?
If you drive an EV here you already know that Portugal is not the rest of Europe. Ionity works across the continent on a subscription, and its own support pages say the Motion and Power subscriptions are valid in 23 European countries, currently not in Portugal. In Portugal, per the same pages, you charge through partners connected to Spark Alliance instead.
For years that was not Ionity being difficult. It was the shape of the market.
Portugal ran a model where the driver held a contract with a CEME, an electricity retailer for e-mobility, and the company operating the charge point did not sell to the driver directly. The operator did not set the price the driver paid. A subscription where the operator gives you a cheaper rate has nowhere to attach in a system built that way.
That model is being dismantled right now. The new legal regime for electric mobility has been in force since 19 August 2025, the CEME role goes away, operators buy electricity themselves and set their prices in full, and the transitional period where both models coexist runs to 31 December 2026. MOBI.E stops being the central manager of the public network under the regulation published in Diário da República in January 2026. That description comes from the Portuguese EV owners’ association and from Portuguese press, not from my own reading of the regulation, and I have not read the regulation.
Now look at the dates together.
| Date | Whose claim | |
|---|---|---|
| Second-generation battery and flash charging announced | 6 March 2026 | BYD, newsroom |
| Flash stations overseas at scale | end of 2026 | BYD, newsroom |
| Portugal’s old CEME model fully ends | 31 December 2026 | new legal regime, per UVE |
| 50 flash chargers in Portugal, 300 in Spain, under €0.50/kWh | by end of 2027 | Denza, per Spanish press |
An operator that wants to sell charging in Portugal at its own announced price could not have done that under the old rules. It can under the new ones. Whether that was the reason for the timing I have no idea, and I am not going to pretend the sequence proves intent. But if you were wondering why a network with its own tariff is being promised for 2027 rather than now, the answer is at least partly sitting in a regulation.
So what does this change for the car I own?
Nothing, directly. That is worth saying plainly rather than dressing up.
What it changes is the shape of the next decision. I like how this car drives — quiet, smooth, quick off the line, surprisingly comfortable, and six years has not changed that. What has worn me down is everything around the driving. Charging at 50 kW while the brochure talks about 530 km of range, and getting about 250 km of it at 120 km/h, is part of that same gap between the number on the page and the number on the road.
Nine minutes closes that gap in a way another 100 km of claimed range does not. On a long trip, a nine-minute stop is a coffee. A forty-minute stop is a plan.
But it closes it only for a car I do not have, at a charger that does not exist here yet, and at a price that has been announced rather than charged to anybody.
Two conditions, and today neither of them is true in Portugal.
Does anyone here charge regularly in Portugal and Spain both, on the same card? I would like to know what you actually pay per kWh on each side of the border, because every comparison I can find is either a national average or a press release, and neither of those is a receipt.
FAQ
What did BYD announce on 6 March 2026?
Its second-generation Blade battery and its flash charging technology. Per BYD’s newsroom page: 1500 kW through a single gun, 10% to 70% in five minutes, 10% to 97% in nine minutes at normal temperature, and at minus 30 degrees, 20% to 97% taking only three minutes longer than at normal temperature.
Can an older BYD be upgraded to the second-generation battery?
No. The pack, the cells and the charging hardware are the product, not an accessory. BYD’s announcement says nothing about retrofitting existing cars, and I would not expect it to.
Which cars in Europe have the second-generation battery?
The Denza Z9 GT, shown in Europe in April 2026 from €115,000 and reaching the UK in July. The models carrying the same battery at ordinary prices, Seal 06 GT, Seal 07 and Seal 08, launched in China.
Are flash chargers coming to Portugal?
Denza says 50 in Portugal and 300 in Spain by the end of 2027, on CCS2, open to other brands, at under €0.50 per kWh. Those figures come from Spanish press reports of Denza’s Spanish launch in July 2026. I could not trace them to a Chinese primary source, so they are Denza’s claim rather than something I can verify.
Why do Ionity subscriptions not work in Portugal?
Ionity’s own support pages state that the Motion and Power subscriptions are valid in 23 European countries, currently not in Portugal, and that in Portugal you charge via partners connected to Spark Alliance. The underlying reason is the market model Portugal used, where the driver contracted with a CEME and the charge point operator did not sell to the driver or set the price.
Is that changing?
Yes. Per the Portuguese EV owners’ association, the new legal regime for electric mobility has been in force since 19 August 2025, the CEME role ends, operators set prices in full, and the transitional period runs to 31 December 2026. Portuguese press reports that the regulation published in Diário da República in January 2026 ends MOBI.E’s role as central manager of the public network.
What do you actually get today on an older Han in Europe?
50 kW in 90% of cases, and about 40 minutes to half. In 2024 I was paying about €1 per kWh at Ionity in Portugal, the most I have paid anywhere here.
Source
The claims about the battery and about flash charging in this post come from one primary document: BYD’s newsroom page of 6 March 2026, The first half of electrification closes perfectly: BYD releases the second-generation Blade Battery and flash charging technology. The page is in Chinese, that headline is my translation, and so is every figure above that is attributed to BYD.
The Iberian deployment figures are Denza’s, as reported by Spanish outlets in early July 2026, and I have said above that I could not find them in a Chinese primary. The statements about Ionity subscriptions come from Ionity’s own support pages. The description of Portugal’s market model and its change comes from the Portuguese EV owners’ association and Portuguese press. The numbers about my own car and my own charging bills are mine.
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