The partnership puts BYD chargers at KFC locations across China, timed to match a quick meal pick-up
NurPhoto / Getty Images
BYD and Yum China Holdings — the conglomerate that owns the KFC brand in China — signed a strategic cooperation agreement earlier this week at BYD's headquarters in Shenzhen, aiming to install flash charging equipment at KFC drive-thru locations across the country.
Central to the agreement is a concept the two companies are calling "9-minute one-stop human and vehicle refueling," a nod to BYD's second-generation Blade battery — introduced in March — which BYD says can bring a vehicle from 10% battery to 97% in nine minutes, a window that lines up neatly with a drive-thru pickup.
On the technology side, BYD introduced an integrated ordering feature tied to the KFC partnership, through which drivers can use voice commands from behind the wheel to browse the menu, pay, and set a pickup time. Route data feeds into the system as well, so that when a driver gets close to a participating location, an automatic alert prompts them to collect their order. BYD's Fangchengbao Ti7 SUV is first in line to receive the feature, with a broader rollout across the company's vehicle range to follow.
According to Li Yunfei, general manager of BYD's Brand and Public Relations Department, the company's flash charging network already numbers more than 5,000 stations across China, with a target of reaching 20,000 by the close of 2026.
KFC is the largest foreign fast-food chain in China according to carnewschina.com, having entered the market before McDonald's $MCD. As of December 2025, about 13,000 KFC outlets operated across 2,500 Chinese cities, said Yum China Holdings.
BYD described on-the-go charging as a persistent pain point in EV ownership and said the collaboration is designed to address it by co-locating charging infrastructure with an established network of dining stops.
The deal is being struck at a difficult moment for BYD commercially. A combination of chronic oversupply across China's EV industry and the withdrawal of government purchase incentives for new energy vehicles at the beginning of 2026 weighed on the company's performance, with CNBC reporting that domestic sales in the first quarter fell roughly 30% year over year. The company's most recent annual results also showed its first profit contraction since 2021. Even so, BYD held onto its position at the top of China's EV market, with CNBC's calculations putting its first-quarter domestic deliveries at 367,828 units.
Join 500,000+ readers who start their day with Quartz.
By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
