Chinese automaker BYD on Thursday unveiled a new battery pack that can charge from 10% to 70% in five minutes. It takes about 4 more minutes to reach almost 100%.
Such charging times negate concerns about charging times for electric vehicles, which is one of the few areas where internal combustion engines can maintain an advantage. BYD says the pack can charge from 20% to 97% in under 12 minutes, even in extremely cold weather (-4°F or -20°C). The battery pack, known as the Blade Battery 2.0 system, will be installed in the Yangwang U7, a full-size luxury sedan.
This alarming number comes with a serious caveat. The Yangwang U7 sedan, or any future BYD vehicle equipped with this next-generation battery pack, will only be able to reach this ultra-fast charging time when paired with one of the company’s new flash charging EV chargers that can deliver 1.5 megawatts of power.
Still, BYD is likely hoping to use the flashy charging technology to boost sales and gain an advantage in price competition with other Chinese automakers that are rapidly rolling out new and improved EVs.
The Shenzhen-based company has long been a darling of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway stock. The investor bought a 10% stake in the automaker for $230 million in 2008, long before the company became a famous rival to Tesla. Berkshire sold its last stake in 2025, recouping more than 20 times its original investment.
BYD is currently the world’s largest EV maker, a position that other Chinese automakers and Tesla also want to change. BYD still outperforms competitors such as Li Auto, Xpeng, Xiaomi, and Zeekr, but its sales have fallen recently. The company reported that total sales volume for January and February 2026 decreased by approximately 36% year-on-year.
The company’s next-generation battery system could help it attract new customers and retain existing ones.
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The new Blade Battery 2.0 achieves the ultra-fast charging feat by using lithium iron phosphate (LFP). LFP is a chemical that automakers hope will help reduce the cost of EVs by avoiding the use of expensive metals such as cobalt and nickel. LFP packs currently cost $81 per kilowatt-hour, while nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) costs $128 per kilowatt-hour, according to BloombergNEF.
LFP is not as energy dense as other chemicals such as NMC, so it cannot carry as much energy, limiting its range. As a result, Western automakers use LFP cells almost exclusively in low-end models. But BYD is betting that by speeding up the charging process, LFP could become accepted beyond low-end EVs.
Before releasing flash charging, BYD had rolled out a 1-megawatt charging system for its previous sedan, the Han L. The system used two 500 kW charging cables that both needed to be plugged in. In the US and Europe, the fastest chargers tend to top out at 350 kW, but the number of 500 kW chargers being deployed is increasing.
BYD’s flash charging stand has a cable hanging from an overhead tower, allowing you to connect the cable to either side of your vehicle. It should also be easier to connect, as the cable and charging plug seem to be quite heavy to support the rated power. BYD said it has completed 4,200 flash charging stations across China and aims to add about 16,000 more by the end of the year, but it should be noted that the company also uses the name “flash” to describe its 1-megawatt chargers. It also said it would add grid-scale battery storage to its facilities to reduce pressure on the grid.
In the U7 full-size sedan, the battery can last just over 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) on the China Small Vehicle Test Cycle (CLTC), which is optimistic. The range of exaggerated values for CLTC is approximately 35% compared to the more realistic EPA test cycle. In real-world driving, you’ll probably get just over 400 miles on a single charge.
That’s less range than the Lucid Air Grand Touring, which can travel 512 miles on a full 117kWh pack, according to the EPA test cycle. But if you can add 240 miles in five minutes, such comparisons may be moot.
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