BYD unveils its Flash Charging 2.0 technology; 10-97% charge in 9 minutes
BYD unveils its Flash Charging 2.0 technology; 10-97% charge in 9 minutes
Publish Date: 2026-03-07 09:00:00
Source Domain: globalchinaev.com
Source: BYD
BYD (HKG: 1211) unveiled its second-generation Blade Battery and Flash Charging 2.0 technology on March 5, 2026, at an event in Shenzhen, promising to charge from 10% to 97% in nine minutes — a speed that, for the first time in mass production, brings EV refuelling broadly in line with a petrol stop.
The announcement comes as the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer faces a domestic sales crisis. Combined January and February 2026 deliveries fell roughly 36% year-on-year, with February marking a 41% single-month drop — the steepest since early 2020. China’s reinstatement of a 5% purchase tax on new energy vehicles at the start of 2026 pulled purchases forward into late 2025, hollowing out early-year demand.
Advertisement – Continue scrolling for more
The Blade Battery 2.0 uses lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry — the same cobalt- and nickel-free approach as its predecessor — while pushing energy density more than 5% higher than the outgoing generation. LFP cells currently cost around $81 per kilowatt-hour, compared with $128/kWh for nickel manganese cobalt chemistry, according to BloombergNEF, making the cost trajectory a key differentiator over rival packs.
BYD has also extended the battery’s warranty to lifetime coverage on the cells, up from the previous generation, and raised the guaranteed capacity retention rate by 2.5 percentage points.
Source: BYD
The headline charging figures — 10% to 70% in five minutes, 10% to 97% in nine minutes — come with a firm caveat. BYD chairman Wang Chuanfu confirmed that achieving these speeds requires one of the company’s new Flash Charging stations, each rated at a peak output of 1,500 kW at 1,000 volts.
The stations use overhead-suspended cables on a sliding rail system — designed to cope with the considerable weight of liquid-cooled charging guns — and can serve either side of a parked vehicle.
In the absence of dedicated Flash Charging hardware, vehicles equipped with…
