The competition to eliminate EV charging anxiety reached a new benchmark this week as FAW Group’s luxury Hongqi brand demonstrated a prototype battery that charges from 10% to 70% state of charge in 3 minutes and 41 seconds. The test, conducted at 25 degrees Celsius, showed a peak charging rate of 12C, among the highest ever demonstrated for a production-intent cell.
The battery, developed in partnership with China Automotive New Energy Battery Technology and Lishen Battery, relies on a custom low-desolvation electrolyte and a composite carbon-coated anode to lower the energy barrier for lithium-ion migration. Internal resistance was reduced by 15%, allowing ions to move faster with less friction. During testing, temperature variance across the battery pack did not exceed 3 degrees Celsius, indicating effective thermal management.
The battery reached 97% state of charge in just over 8 minutes. The thermal management system uses adaptive liquid cooling that adjusts its operating strategy based on whether the vehicle is parked, driving, or charging.
The numbers beat BYD’s second-generation Blade Battery, which achieves a 10% to 70% charge in roughly 5 minutes using the company’s flash charging infrastructure. BYD’s advantage is commercial reality: its Blade batteries are already rolling off assembly lines and powering production vehicles. Hongqi has not announced a mass production timeline or identified which model would be the first to carry the new cells.
The disclosure adds to Hongqi’s multi-track battery strategy. In December 2025, the brand rolled out its first prototype vehicle using an all-solid-state battery pack, built on the Hongqi Tiangong 06 platform.
China’s EV battery sector has entered an arms race, with multiple manufacturers competing on fast charging. CATL’s Shenxing and Qilin batteries offer 4C to 5.5C rates in production vehicles. The question now is whether sub-4-minute charging can be delivered at scale and at a cost consumers will accept.
Sources: CnEVPost (Jul 28, 2026); Interesting Engineering (Jul 29, 2026); CarNewsChina (Jul 29, 2026)