Chery joins Chinese EV charging arms race with 1.44MW ‘Volt-dragon’ system
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Chery has entered the chat with China's second-fastest charging battery.
GE
George East
26 October 2026 · 2 min read
Chery has announced its Volt-dragon battery and charging system as its riposte to the megawatt charging systems offered by fellow Chinese carmakers BYD, Geely, and Huawei.
China’s fifth largest carmaker promises that batteries compatible with the Volt-dragon setup will be able to onboard 311 miles of range in five minutes. Supported Chery vehicles will be future models built on 800V or 1,000V architecture.
Charging the battery from 10%-97% will take 6 minutes and 50 seconds, making it the second-fastest unit in China’s emerging charging arms race behind the third-gen CATL battery, which manages a 10%-98% charge time in 6m 27s.
Hongqi’s Ultra Fast Charging battery is third fastest on 8m 3s, while Geely’s Golden Brick takes 8m 42s. BYD’s Blade Battery 2.0 rounds off things in nine minutes.
However, the BYD and Geely charging systems are more powerful, producing 1.5MW and 2.25MW respectively. While BYD and Geely have both disclosed their systems’ behaviours in extreme heat or cold, Chery has yet to do so.
The BYD Flash charger was the first of the Chinese megawatt chargers (Image: BYD)Like Geely, Chery promises to introduce robotic charging arms to the Volt-dragon system to create a drive-thru experience for users. It will also support vehicle-to-grid technology, allowing users to plug in their EV at Volt-dragon sites and sell electricity back to the grid.
Chery aims to open 100 Volt-dragon charging stations in 10 cities across China with immediate effect. By 2029, it aims to have over 20,000 Volt-dragon V2G-capable stations installed across the globe.
BYD, which announced its Flash Charging network earlier in June this year, hit the milestone of 10,000 sites in August, and aims to reach 20,000 by the end of 2026. BYD plans to introduce the system to the UK but after initially claiming it would have 300 chargers in operation by the end of 2026, it has now pushed that target back to August 2027.