Less than 7 minutes: Chery enters the race for fastest charging speeds
A competition among Chinese automakers to develop the fastest charging speeds. The latest entrant is Chery, which claims 500 km of range after just 5 minutes of charging, though it hasn’t provided details on when this will be available in its vehicles.
BYD, Geely, CATL, Hongqi: the list of Chinese companies offering ultra-fast charging in under 10 minutes is growing. This is actually quite logical and expected given the approach of China’s automotive industry—everyone moving in the same direction. BYD started it off with its Flash Charge technology last spring, and now Chery is joining in with its Volt-Dragon technology.
In terms of charging power alone, at 1.44 MW, Chery performs worse than Geely’s 1.5 MW or 2.2 MW. However, the overall charging speed is even more advantageous here. While BYD takes 9 minutes to charge from 10% to 97%, Chery claims it takes only 6 minutes and 50 seconds.
Another figure worth noting: 500 km in 5 minutes. This refers to the range recovered during the first 5 minutes of charging from 10%, likely covering around 10% to 80% of the battery, under Chinese testing conditions. Even when converted to WLTP standards, the figure remains impressive. Unlike BYD, Chery does not mention how its batteries perform in cold weather.
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Deployment: BYD’s advantage
BYD still holds a significant advantage over its rival: its ability to quickly deploy its technology across its entire lineup. Flash Charge-compatible batteries now cover most of BYD’s product range in China, from Denza’s premium models to the new Seagull city car. It has also set up over 12,000 charging stations in China since April. While this pace falls short of the target of 20,000 stations by December 31, it remains very rapid.
On its part, Chery has developed a charging station claiming an efficiency of 96.5%. 100 stations are already in operation, and it plans to open 20,000 more by 2029, all of which will be V2G compatible. The company has also promised a robotic arm for fully autonomous charging, an option whose appeal will increase further with the arrival of vehicles certified at level 3 autonomy on the market.
We now turn to the vehicles. Here, the policy is “keep it quiet.” There is no confirmation regarding the availability of existing or future models, nor any timeline. The demonstration vehicle was an iCar V23 SUV, which may indicate that, similar to BYD, the Dragon Volt technology will soon be offered on compact vehicles, potentially aimed at Europe. Chery has also remained discreet on this point.