As slumping EV giant Tesla's sales slow to a crawl, the star of Chinese equivalent BYD is rising. Yesterday, the Shenzhen-based corporation revealed In the past 24 hours, BYD's market value surpassed Ford,

BYD, founded by Wang Chuanfu (pictured), soared to a record high after it claimed it can charge its vehicles as quickly as it takes to fill up with petrol.

Wang Chuanfu, the Shenzhen-based group’s billionaire founder, unveiled a new charging system that could add about 470km in range to BYD’s own batteries in just five minutes. The release of the so-called Super e-Platform has thrust BYD to the front of an industry-wide race to develop battery cells for electric vehicles that will make refuelling electric vehicles as fast as filling up cars with petrol or diesel.