China is shattering EV charging records with companies like BYD, CATL and Geely pushing them to be even faster than ever

The days of spending half an hour EV charging could soon feel seriously outdated with China shattering charging records thanks to companies like BYD, CATL and Geely.

Soon, charging will be so supercharged that you will be fully topped up before you even finish drinking a coffee.

Chinese automakers and battery giants are now developing systems capable of putting hundreds of miles of range into an EV in just a few minutes.

And the best part is that these charging speeds are already appearing in production cars.

BYD is pushing EV charging into the megawatt era

BYD kicked off this latest EV charging arms race in spectacular fashion when it introduced its Super e-Platform in 2025.

The system was capable of charging at up to 1,000kW, with BYD claiming its cars could gain around 250 miles of range in just five minutes, that was already enough to make conventional EV charging look painfully slow.

But BYD wasn’t finished.

In March 2026, the company unveiled its second-generation Blade Battery alongside its new Flash Charging technology.

The system pushed charging power to an enormous 1,500kW, allowing a compatible vehicle to go from 10 percent to 70 percent charge in around five minutes and reach 97 percent in just nine minutes.

That is getting remarkably close to the amount of time you’d expect to spend at a gas station.

BYD has also been working on the infrastructure needed to make the technology useful outside of demonstrations.

The company said it planned to build 20,000 Flash Charging stations across China by the end of 2026, with international expansion also planned, and it’s not the only EV company making big strides.

CATL and Geely are making charging for EVs even faster

CATL, one of the world’s biggest EV battery manufacturers, has now entered the charging-speed race with its third-generation Shenxing Superfast Charging Battery.

The numbers are frankly ridiculous.

CATL says the battery can go from 10 percent to 80 percent in just three minutes and 44 seconds, while a 10 percent to 98 percent charge takes only six minutes and 27 seconds.

CATL also says its technology can still deliver impressive results in temperatures as low as -22°F, and we know cold weather charging and EV ownership has proven difficult for people in the coldest corners of the world.

Geely has also been chasing BYD’s record, and it’s now managed to inch past it.

Its Lynk & Co 10 used a 900V Energee Golden Brick battery and Geely’s V4 ultra-fast charging equipment to reach a peak of 1,100kW.

The car went from 10 percent to 70 percent in four minutes and 22 seconds and reached 97 percent in just eight minutes and 42 seconds, narrowly beating BYD’s nine-minute figure.

The technology behind these numbers isn’t simply about throwing more electricity at a battery.

Higher-voltage electrical architectures, batteries designed to accept enormous amounts of current, advanced power electronics, and liquid cooling all have to work together to prevent the system from overheating.

There is still one major catch: chargers capable of delivering more than a megawatt aren’t exactly available on every street corner yet.

But China is rapidly building the infrastructure to support them, and the competition between BYD, CATL, Geely and other companies is pushing charging technology forward at a remarkable pace.

If this continues, the biggest EV charging problem may soon be less about how long it takes to charge and more about whether your coffee has even had time to cool down before you’re ready to leave.