BYD releases EV batteries with 5-minute ‘flash charging’ – but there’s a catch

Chinese automaker BYD unveiled a new battery on Thursday that the company says can charge from 10% to 70% in five minutes. A 100% download takes about four minutes.

Recharge times like these can alleviate concerns about charging time for electric vehicles – one of the few areas where internal combustion engines have an advantage. Even in extremely cold weather (-4°F or -20°C), the pack can charge from 20% to 97% within 12 minutes, according to BYD. The battery pack, known as the Blade Battery 2.0 system, is expected to be introduced in the Yangwang U7, the flagship sedan.

There is an important caveat to this wonderful picture. The Yangwang U7 sedan, or any other future BYD vehicle with a next-generation battery, can reach this high acceleration time when connected to one of the company’s new Flash Charging EV chargers, which can output 1.5 megawatts of electricity.

However, BYD needs to rely on this charging technology to boost sales and lead to a price war with Chinese automakers that are releasing new and faster EVs.

The Shenzhen-based company has been a favorite of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Holdings for years. The retailer bought a 10% stake in the automaker in 2008 for $230 million — long before it became Tesla’s rival and household name. Berkshire sold its last shares in 2025, back more than 20x initial investment.

Today, BYD is the world’s leading manufacturer of EVs – a position that Chinese automakers and Tesla are aiming to replace. While BYD continues to compete with competitors like Li Auto, Xpeng, Xiaomi, and Zeekr, there has been a recent decline in sales. The company also reported that its sales volume for January and February in 2026 fell about 36% compared to last year.

Its next-generation battery technology can help attract new customers and retain existing ones.

The new Blade Battery 2.0 achieves high-speed charging using lithium iron phosphate (LFP), a chemistry that manufacturers are betting will help reduce the cost of EVs because it avoids the use of precious metals such as cobalt or nickel. Currently, LFP packs cost $81 per kilowatt-hour compared to $128 per kilowatt-hour for nickel manganese cobalt (NMC), according to at BloombergNEF.

Because LFP is not as strong as other chemistries such as NMC, it cannot carry as much energy, which limits its versatility. As a result, Western car manufacturers almost always use LFP cells in their cheaper models. But BYD is betting that by speeding up the charging process, the LFP could be more acceptable than low-end EVs.

Before releasing Flash Charging, BYD released a 1 megawatt charging system on the previous sedan, the Han L, which used two cables to generate 500 kW needed to charge everything.

BYD’s Flash Charging stalls have cables extending from the top of the platform, allowing the cables to run on both sides of the vehicle. It should also make plugging easier because the cables and charging plug are probably too heavy to handle the amount of power they’re rated to handle. BYD says it has 4,200 Flash Charging stations completed across China with the goal of adding about 16,000 by the end of the year, although we should note that the automaker uses the name “Flash” to describe its 1-megawatt chargers. It also said it will add grid-scale batteries to installations to reduce stress on the grid.

In the larger U7 sedan, the battery can drive the car for more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) on the China Light-Duty Vehicle Test Cycle (CLTC), which tends to be good. The value of CLTC 35% increase compared to EPA’s actual testing. In real driving, the car can travel more than 400 kilometers on a single charge.

This is less than the Lucid Air Grand Touring, which can travel 512 kilometers on a full pack of 117 kWh, according to EPA testing. But being able to add 240 miles in five minutes would make such a comparison possible.