Chinese automaker BYD unveiled a new battery pack on Thursday that the company says is capable of charging from 10% to 70% in just five minutes. Taking the battery to almost full takes only about four minutes more. Recharge times like these would address a major concern about electric vehicles and eliminate one of the few remaining advantages held by internal combustion engines. The battery performs well even in extreme cold. According to BYD, at temperatures of negative 20 degrees Celsius, the pack can charge from 20% to 97% in under 12 minutes.
This new battery pack, known as the Blade Battery 2.0 system, is scheduled to debut in the Yangwang U7, a full-size luxury sedan. There is, however, a critical condition for achieving these eye-popping charging speeds. The Yangwang U7, or any future BYD vehicle equipped with this battery, can only reach this ultra-fast charging time when paired with one of the company’s new Flash Charging EV chargers.
BYD is likely counting on this flashy charging technology to boost sales and gain an edge in an intense price war with other Chinese automakers, all of whom are rapidly rolling out new and improved electric vehicles. The Shenzhen-based company was once a major holding in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway portfolio. The investor bought a 10% stake in BYD in 2008 for 230 million dollars, long before it became a rival to Tesla and a household name. Berkshire sold its last shares in 2025, earning a return of more than twenty times its original investment.
Today, BYD is the world’s largest manufacturer of electric vehicles, a status that competitors like Tesla and other Chinese automakers are keen to change. While BYD still outpaces rivals such as Li Auto, Xpeng, Xiaomi, and Zeekr, it has recently experienced a dip in sales. The company reported that its combined sales volume for January and February of 2026 fell by roughly 36% compared to the same period the year before. This next-generation battery system could help attract new customers and retain existing ones.
The new Blade Battery 2.0 achieves its ultra-fast charging by using lithium-iron-phosphate, or LFP, chemistry. Automakers are betting on LFP to help lower the cost of electric vehicles because it avoids expensive metals like cobalt and nickel. Currently, LFP battery packs cost significantly less per kilowatt-hour than other common chemistries. Because LFP is not as energy-dense as alternatives like nickel-manganese-cobalt, it traditionally carries less energy, which limits vehicle range. As a result, Western automakers almost exclusively use LFP cells in their less expensive models. BYD is betting that by dramatically speeding up the charging process, LFP can become acceptable for more than just low-end electric vehicles.
To achieve a five-minute charge time, BYD has also developed a new EV charger called Flash Charging, which is capable of delivering 1.5 megawatts of electricity. Previously, BYD had rolled out a 1-megawatt charging system. In the United States and Europe, the fastest public chargers tend to top out at 350 kilowatts, though an increasing number of 500-kilowatt chargers are being installed. BYD’s Flash charger stalls feature cables that drape from overhead towers, allowing the cables to serve either side of a vehicle. This design should also make plugging in easier, as the cables and charging plug are very heavy to handle the immense power. BYD said it has completed 4,200 Flash charging stations throughout China and aims to add about 16,000 more by the end of the year. The company also plans to add grid-scale batteries to these installations to relieve pressure on the electrical grid.
In the U7 full-size sedan, the battery enables a range of just over 1,000 kilometers on the China Light Duty Vehicle Test Cycle. It is important to note that this test cycle tends to be optimistic and typically overstates range by about 35% compared to the more realistic EPA test cycle used in the United States. In real-world driving, the car would likely achieve just over 400 miles on a single charge. That is less range than some competitors, such as the Lucid Air Grand Touring. However, the ability to add approximately 240 miles of range in just five minutes could make such range comparisons far less important to consumers.