BYD Revisits the Silk Road: 43 Days, 11 Countries, 15,000 Kilometers

More than 700 years ago, a young Venetian departed from his hometown, following a path trodden by camel caravans eastward for four years to reach Shangdu of the Yuan Dynasty.

His dictated account later while in prison became the starting point for Europeans to imagine the East.

More than 700 years later, a team of Chinese vehicles with green plates departed from the Italian Peninsula, heading in the opposite direction, eastward and then eastward again, stopping by Shenzhen Bay 43 days later.

The entire journey was 15,000 kilometers, crossing 11 countries, burning not a drop of fuel.

This is BYD's "Marco Polo New Silk Road." Long-distance travel with pure electric vehicles is no longer news, but that was within the country.

From Rome to Khorgos, separated by Balkan mountain roads, the Anatolian plateau, and the Central Asian Gobi, where are the charging piles in those places? How was this ten-thousand-kilometer journey charged?

Only by understanding this question can you truly understand the significance behind BYD revisiting the Silk Road.

01.From Rome to Shenzhen, This Road Took 700 Years

Let's first trace the route.

On June 13, 2026, the BYD team departed from Palazzo Orsini Taverna in Rome, Italy.

This palace itself is a relic left 500 years ago by a family involved in East-West trade. Choosing to start here spoke volumes without words.

The subsequent route crossed Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan in order, a total of 10 foreign countries. Finally, it entered via the Khorgos port in Xinjiang, passing through Xi'an, Luoyang, Suzhou, and Shanghai, concluding in Shenzhen on July 25.

Calculated by fingers, it was 43 days, 11 countries, 15,000 kilometers.

If you draw this line on a map, you will find it highly overlaps with the main line of the ancient Silk Road.

Leaving the Italian Peninsula of Southern Europe, crossing the Balkans, crossing the Bosphorus Strait into Asia, crossing the Anatolian plateau, climbing the Caucasus Mountains, arriving in Central Asia via the Caspian Sea ferry, then advancing eastward through the Kazakh wilderness until Khorgos.

This is not a route designed for self-driving tours. The terrain and climate differences along the way are ridiculous.

The Mediterranean coast is dry and hot in summer, the Balkan mountains are foggy and rainy, the eastern part of Turkey exceeds two thousand meters in altitude, the winding mountain roads in Georgia have sharp turns and steep slopes, the Central Asian Gobi scorches the car paint by day and cools down at night, arriving in China you still have to experience the headwinds in the Northwest and the plum rain in Jiangnan.

Temperature difference, altitude, road conditions, each item is a real test for the electric vehicle's three-electric system and thermal management.

More critically, the ones completing the journey were not special modified vehicles, but mass-produced vehicles available on the BYD market. All matrix of Dynasty, Ocean, Denza, Fang Cheng Bao, and Yangwang participated, without special reinforcement, without extra fuel tanks, even the charging ports remained in factory original condition.

More than 700 years ago, Marco Polo walked this road relying on camels' endurance and human stamina.

More than 700 years later, the team walked the same road relying on electricity in the batteries and charging stations along the way. The carrier changed, but the essence of this road connecting East and West has not changed.

02.How to Achieve 15,000 Kilometers Pure Electric Cross Silk Road?

An outsider looking at this trip, the first reaction is to ask if the range is enough.

This question placed in 2026 is actually no longer valid. Pure electric vehicles now generally achieve 600 km or more in CLTC range. Long-distance travel is not impossible, the real pain point has always been one—charging.

Especially abroad. Charging pile standards in Europe are not unified, operators are fragmented, in some parts of Central Asia even stable grids are a problem.

You drive an electric car departing from Rome, no matter how long the range, if you cannot find a reliable fast charging pile midway, it will break down.

BYD's solution is simple and rough: build it themselves.

After the team entered Uzbekistan, passing through the four ancient cities of Khiva, Bukhara, Samarkand, and Tashkent, there was a BYD exclusive flash charging station waiting at every stop.

Note this order, not the car team arrived and then looked for electricity everywhere, but the piles were secured before the car arrived, and then the car drove over.

These four cities are exactly the core nodes on the Silk Road in Central Asia. BYD pinned the flash charging piles in these places, both as a safety net for this trip and paving the way for long-term deep cultivation in the Central Asian market.

So, BYD dared to use pure electric vehicles to cross the Silk Road. The confidence to do so comes from BYD's Megawatt Flash Charge technology.

BYD's Megawatt Flash Charge is based on the Super e-Platform. Simply put, it is a middle school physics problem.

Power equals Voltage times Current. To charge fast, either increase current or raise voltage. Too large current causes wire harnesses to be bulky, severe heat generation, and high energy loss. So the industry consensus is to take the high-voltage route.

BYD directly pulled the voltage to 1000V, two and a half times the mainstream 400V platform, cooperating with 1000A maximum current and 10C charging rate, peak charging power reached 1000 kilowatts, which is one megawatt.

What is the concept of one megawatt, how fast can charging be? Official data says "in normal temperature, fully charged in 5 minutes, fully saturated in 9 minutes", meaning electricity from 10% to 70% takes only 5 minutes, from 10% to 97% takes only 9 minutes, averaging about two kilometers of range increase per second, charging for 5 minutes can supplement more than 400 kilometers.

Achieving this charging speed in technical engineering is not easy.

On one hand, battery internal resistance must be reduced. BYD cut internal resistance by about half by reconstructing ion channels, using still the second-generation Blade Battery, long structure for uniform heat dissipation. On the other hand, the charging gun must be light. Using conventional cables for over a thousand amperes current would be too heavy to lift, BYD used fully liquid-cooled terminals to control the gun cable to two kilograms.

Finally, Silicon Carbide power chips must be manufactured themselves. Electronic control, air conditioning, motors all unified to 1000V standard. No component could stay in the low-voltage zone dragging behind. This is a whole set of full-stack self-researched system, not gathered from buying a pile of supplier parts.

In August 2026, this Megawatt Flash Charge system received the German International Paul Pich Award. The award was founded by the European authoritative automotive media "Automotor & Sport". Established in 1989, now 37 years, BYD is the first Chinese enterprise to win. The jury believes it "is expected to push the adoption of pure electric vehicles from the root".

Domestic energy replenishment networks have also spread. As of the end of June this year, BYD has built 7,018 flash charging stations in 325 cities nationwide, grid-like coverage of urban areas, highways, and townships.

So you see, 15,000 kilometers run, on the surface the car is running, underneath is a pre-woven charging network supporting it.

Range is the car's capability, being able to charge is the system's capability.

03.Crossing 11 Countries Complex Road Conditions, Intelligent Driving Helped a Lot

Ten thousand plus kilometers of long-distance travel, human fatigue is unavoidable. Especially abroad, road signs unreadable, traffic regulations different, mountain roads and highways alternating, anyone cannot endure continuous driving for several days.

On this trip, BYD's God's Eye assisted driving system was basically online throughout.

Urban congestion road following car start-stop, long-distance highway automatic cruise maintaining distance, mountain tunnels recognizing lane lines and curves, continuous winding mountain roads decelerating in advance. These functions taken individually each item is not new, most 200,000 RMB level cars at home have them.

But what is new is the scenario—from Italian roundabouts to Turkish mountain roads, from Kazakh desert highways to domestic highway tunnels, traffic signs, driving habits, and road conditions of 11 countries are completely different. One system needs to adapt to all, this is an extreme test for the algorithm's generalization ability.

The trump card of God's Eye is data. According to official disclosure, BYD assisted driving system daily real driving data exceeds 210 million kilometers. These data flow back from mass-produced cars, after labeling and training then OTA pushed to users, forming a continuous evolution closed loop.

To be blunt, this system is not calculated by engineers in an office, it is driven out by millions of car owners on the road. The more road conditions seen, the more stable the handling of weird scenarios.

I have always felt, intelligent driving cannot be viewed from launch event demos. Demo videos are all selected. True persuasiveness lies in this long-distance real run, over forty days different countries different road conditions run without major issues, more useful than any spec sheet.

Of course assisted driving is ultimately assistance, driver's hand cannot leave the steering wheel, but it can cut down a large chunk of long-distance driving fatigue intensity, making ten thousand plus kilometers not turn into torment.

04.Driving Out is Not Just Cars, BYD is Under a Bigger Game

If only understanding this trip as a car long-term test, the perspective is too small.

You notice events happening along the way. The team arrived in Belgrade, Serbia, BYD Executive Vice President Li Ke accepted an "Award for Sustainable Development and Interconnectivity". The award giver was a local institute, this is not an enterprise awarding itself.

In Uzbekistan, the four flash charging stations are not temporary facilities, part of BYD's joint venture factory plan with local. Uzbekistan Q1 BYD sales volume 7,799 vehicles, year-on-year growth 93%, directly knocking Chevrolet which monopolized the local market for thirty years off the table.

Looking bigger. BYD's factories in Thailand, Brazil, Uzbekistan have entered production. Hungary Szeged factory invested 4 billion euros, started production in Q2 this year, Turkey factory also landed this year.

From whole vehicle manufacturing to charging network to local R&D and sales channels, it is not transporting cars over to sell and leave, but moving the whole industry chain over, hiring locally, building factories, paying taxes locally.

Sales figures also support. In the first half of this year, BYD sold 174,100 vehicles in Europe, year-on-year growth 145.5%, already surpassing Japanese brands like Nissan, Honda that cultivated Europe for many years. June single month exports to EU plus UK plus EFTA 54,000 vehicles. In UK, first half sold nearly 38,000 vehicles, surpassing Tesla, BMW, Volkswagen topping EV sales champion. Germany July single month sales 5,240 vehicles, year-on-year growth 365%. Overseas annual sales target from beginning of year 1.3 million vehicles up revised to 1.5 million vehicles.

These numbers placed three years ago are inconceivable. China's automotive exports in the past relied on low prices and volume, selling cheap cars to Southeast Asia, Middle East, Latin America. Now BYD sells products with Megawatt Flash Charge and high-level intelligent driving in Europe, prices not cheaper than Volkswagen, Toyota, still people pay. This Silk Road trip used wheels rolling over 11 countries, essentially making a real field endorsement for "Chinese Smart Manufacturing" four words.

Marco Polo brought Eastern product information back to Europe, relying on a pen.

BYD spreads China's electric vehicles and charging technology across Eurasian continent, relying on an entire industry chain.

05.Ancient Silk Road Spoke with Medicines, Silk, Porcelain, Tea, New Silk Road with What?

Return to the cultural line.

What circulated on the ancient Silk Road, was silk, porcelain, tea, medicinal herbs.

Interesting, almost at the same time, BYD's other team departed from Xi'an, following ancient path to Bozhou seeking medicinal herbs, to Jingdezhen fetching porcelain, to Hangzhou collecting silk, to Mount Wuyi picking tea leaves, taking the four legendary items "Medicines, Silk, Porcelain, and Tea" 33 days later to Shenzhen going overseas walked again.

These products in that year were hard currency, material carriers of Eastern civilization external output.

Then what is transported on the New Silk Road?

First stop after team entering was Xi'an. Chinese and foreign guests were invited into BYD Smart Manufacturing Base, from batteries to motors to electronic control full-link self-research looked through thoroughly.

Arriving Luoyang, Tang and Song family carrying people under Longmen Grottoes chatted about Silk Road culture.

Arriving Suzhou, Ocean series cars drove into water town alleys, echoing across with records of "Venice of the East" under Marco Polo's pen.

Arriving Shanghai, Denza representatives sat on the East-West dialogue table with Eastern New Luxury.

You see, Ancient Silk Road transported products, New Silk Road transports technology and standards. Three-electric system is technology, high-voltage charging architecture is standard, intelligent driving algorithm is ability, whole vehicle manufacturing system is strength.

These things like silk and porcelain are products a civilization most proud to present in specific era, only carrier changed from fine silks to chips and batteries.

Interesting is direction, Marco Polo walked from West to East, bringing Eastern prosperity back to Europe.

BYD's trip also walked from West to East, departing from Rome returning to Shenzhen, but cars made in China, technology developed in China, flash charging piles erected by Chinese brands on Central Asian land.

Same direction, the output entity is completely reversed.

Final Thoughts

43 days, 11 countries, 15,000 kilometers, full journey pure electric, mass-produced vehicles no modification. Wheels have replaced camel bells, on that ancient road rolled out a new wheel track, this event itself worthy of being remembered.

BYD revisiting the Silk Road proved pure electric vehicles crossing Eurasian continent technically completely feasible, and not that kind of feasible by gritting teeth to endure, but with flash charging network safety net, intelligent driving system sharing burden, full matrix models completed run with composure, proving China's automotive industry's three-electric technology and replenishment system already possessed confidence to accept testing under global most complex road conditions, injecting green new energy into traditional Silk Road.