Charging as fast as refueling: these new CATL batteries charge in 3 minutes and 44 seconds, and manufacturers are already showing interest in them
Following the price war in recent years, Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers have found a new battleground: charging times. While European companies focus more on range, an increasing number of Chinese brands are introducing ultra-fast charging systems that can restore a battery to almost 100% of its charge in less than 10 minutes.
Although BYD pioneered this with its Flash Charging 2.0 system, which allows the battery to go from 10% to 70% in 5 minutes and from 10% to 97% in 9 minutes, competitors such as Geely and CATL quickly announced similar technologies. In particular, CATL’s third-generation Shenxing batteries support even faster charging speeds than BYD’s second-generation Blade batteries.
The world’s largest battery manufacturer claims its new ultra-fast charging batteries can go from 10% to 80% in 3 minutes and 44 seconds, and fully recharge in about 6 minutes. According to some Chinese media outlets, Dongfeng will be the first manufacturer to install these new batteries in its electric vehicles, as it is in talks with CATL to introduce them first.
In the first nine months of 2026, CATL achieved a 43.8% market share in China. Despite this strong dominance, the company now must prove its technological superiority over BYD, which has already installed its new batteries in production models, including some low-cost models such as the recently launched Seagull, which has become the smallest electric car with the fastest charging speed in the market.
CATL and BYD are the world’s two largest battery manufacturers
The innovative pace of China’s industry stands in contrast to that of Europe, where the electric car with the fastest charging speed on the old continent is the Porsche Cayenne Electric, which can go from 10% to 80% charge in 16 minutes thanks to a peak current of 390 kW. Brands like Renault aim to achieve a 10-80% charge time of 15 minutes by 2028, with this time reducing to 10 minutes by 2030.
However, Chinese brands are already there and not planning to stop. To this we must add their efforts to build the necessary charging infrastructure so that these tight deadlines don’t remain just meaningless specifications. BYD plans to deploy 100 ultra-fast chargers in Europe by the end of 2026, reaching 3,000 stations by the end of 2027.
CATL is also building battery swap stations and ultra-fast electrolyte production facilities in China. For now, the Asian giant has not confirmed whether it will follow BYD’s lead by bringing its charging infrastructure to the old continent, a decision that may depend on its partnerships with companies such as Dongfeng, Chery, BAIC, Changan, GAC, or Seres.
Source | CarNewsChina