Behind the Completion of 2,000 Supercharge Stations, BYD is Rewriting the Underlying Logic of Energy Replenishment Competition

On September 24, BYD's 2,000th supercharge expressway station was officially completed at the Bao'an Service Area in Yangzhou, Jiangsu. The Jinghu Expressway supercharge network is fully connected, forming a "11 vertical and 11 horizontal" expressway main line network, with 2,000 expressway stations covering 278 expressways nationwide. As of that day, BYD had cumulatively built 11,586 supercharge stations, covering 341 cities.

At first glance, this is a milestone infrastructure progress. But if you only understand it as "BYD has built many more charging piles", you may have missed a more important signal—the competition logic in China's new energy vehicle energy replenishment sector is undergoing a fundamental shift.

In the past few years, the energy replenishment network was more like an automaker's "after-sales service"—after the car was sold, the charging matters could be handed over to third-party operators. But BYD's "Supercharge China" strategy has completely flipped this logic.

According to the plan, BYD will build 20,000 supercharge stations by the end of 2026, among which 18,000 will be urban "Stations within Stations", and 2,000 will be expressway supercharge stations. Expressway stations cover nearly one-third of expressway service areas, and urban stations will achieve coverage standards of 3 kilometers in first- and second-tier cities, 5 kilometers in third- and fourth-tier cities, and 6 kilometers in fifth- and sixth-tier cities.

What does this density mean? It means that when users choose a car, the coverage of the energy replenishment network is becoming a decision-making variable as important as the driving range. Users with cross-city commuting feedback reported that previously they would feel anxious when the battery level remained at 50%, but now the charging habit has changed to replenish energy when the remaining battery level is between 10% and 15%. When charging becomes convenient enough, users' sensitivity to range will decrease, while their dependence on the energy replenishment system will increase. This is an "ecosystem lock-in" effect—you are not buying just a car, but a complete mobility energy replenishment solution.

This is likely the move most worth paying attention to in BYD's brand building. When the energy replenishment network is dense enough, fast enough, and convenient enough, "Supercharge models" themselves become a product category with a service promise. The density of the energy replenishment network is becoming the thickness of brand trust.

BYD's speed in building stations is indeed impressive. But behind this, there is a strategy detail that is easily overlooked: its approach is very "smart".

Among the 20,000 stations, 18,000 are the "Stations within Stations" model—not starting from scratch to find land and build stations, but cooperating with existing charging network operators nationwide to embed supercharge equipment into existing sites. At the same time, BYD has signed a "Ten Thousand Stations Gathering Energy, Fast Charging at Gas Stations" strategic cooperation agreement with Sinopec, installing supercharge piles directly into existing gas stations. In addition, BYD has reached deep cooperation with PetroChina, China Resources, Shell, TELED, etc.

The ingenuity of this model lies in: it achieves the fastest network coverage with the lightest asset method. The profitability pressure in the charging pile industry is actually quite high. Under price wars, the era of "simply renting land, buying piles, and earning service fees effortlessly" has passed. The "turnover rate" of 480kW supercharge piles is 3 to 4 times that of the old 120kW piles, but the single-station investment payback period is still long. In this context, BYD chooses to cooperate with existing operators and energy giants to quickly expand the network scale and minimize its own asset burden.

But the "Stations within Stations" model also faces real challenges: how to ensure service consistency of the sites? Operating on others' land, can the standardization level of user experience reach the standard of self-operated stations? How to coordinate the charging priority in "Stations within Stations" during peak hours? The answers to these questions will determine whether this network is "looking dense" or "using smoothly".

The breakthrough of BYD's supercharge technology inevitably triggered the discussion "whether supercharge will kill battery swapping". When the charging time is compressed to single-digit minutes, the industry discussion on energy replenishment routes has heated up again.

But looking deeper, these two routes solve different problems in different scenarios, rather than a simple substitution relationship. Supercharge has obvious advantages in expressway main lines, intercity travel, and other scenarios. Users stop to charge, drink a cup of coffee, and go to the restroom. 9 minutes is just right. But battery swapping still has irreplaceable efficiency advantages in high-frequency urban operation scenarios—ride-hailing, taxis, logistics fleets. CATL launched the "Super-Swap Integrated Station" solution, equipping the entire series of Chocolate Battery Swapping Stations with Shenxing Supercharge Piles. The comprehensive energy loss rate is reduced by more than 13 percentage points compared to the energy storage-equipped supercharging solution. It is planned to build more than 100,000 shared energy replenishment infrastructure facilities by the end of 2028.

Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Ouyang Minggao pointed out that the technical development direction of the new energy vehicle industry in the next five years includes "All-weather Supercharging (rapid replenishment including battery swapping)", integrating charging and swapping into the technology roadmap. This means the industry consensus is shifting from "who replaces whom" to "who suits whom".

For consumers, this is a good thing—the diversification of energy replenishment methods means different vehicle usage scenarios can find the solution most suitable for them. And BYD's rapid deployment of the supercharge network actually opens a door for the entire industry: When charging becomes fast enough, the usage boundary of pure electric vehicle models is greatly expanded.

The completion of BYD's 2,000th supercharge expressway station has another dimension that is easily overlooked: its global extension.

According to the plan, BYD will build 6,000 supercharge stations overseas, which have already landed in Europe, the Americas, and other places. In Singapore, BYD cooperates with Shell to add supercharge piles inside gas stations, pulling charging infrastructure to the global leading level. From a longer cycle perspective, BYD's plan quoted by Deutsche Bank shows that 20,000 supercharge stations will be built by the end of 2026, 30,000 will be added in 2027, and 40,000 will be added in 2028, cumulatively reaching 90,000.

Behind this is a deeper change. In the past, Chinese car going global was mainly product going global—selling cars to overseas markets. But what BYD is doing is "system going global": packaging cars, piles, and services into a complete mobility solution and taking them out together. This model is particularly valuable in overseas markets—charging infrastructure in many countries and regions is still far less perfect than in China, and the experience and technology accumulated by Chinese automakers in energy replenishment network construction can fill this gap.

When the energy replenishment network becomes China's new energy "new calling card" going global, "Supercharge Planet" is not just a brand slogan, but a replicable business model.

2,000 supercharge expressway stations, placed in the big picture of China's new energy vehicle industry, perhaps just a stage node. But the changes it reflects are deep enough: the competition of energy replenishment networks has entered the stage of "is it usable" from "is it available"; from automakers fighting alone to cross-industry, cross-border ecosystem co-construction.

For BYD, these 2,000 stations are a cornerstone for the brand to go from "product leadership" to "ecosystem leadership". For the entire industry, it provides a sample worth pondering repeatedly: in the second half of the new energy competition, whoever can make users' travel experience more calm, whoever holds the initiative to define the future. And this thing has never been just about the number of charging piles.