With the rapid growth of global new energy vehicle sales, the related battery problems have been concerned, do not driving long distances, not be too far away from home, dare not installing a home charging pile..." For a long time, problems such as short battery life, long charging time, and easy "jump gun" of charging piles have plagued the majority of new energy vehicle owners. In the increasingly intense electric car circuit in recent years, which company can take the lead in resolving consumers' "battery anxiety", perhaps who can seize the opportunity, now, many Asian battery manufacturers are competing to develop a new generation of electric vehicle "super fast charge" batteries, these batteries will be expected to make electric cars charge as fast as gasoline or diesel cars:

Leading players in the industry aim to fully charge an electric vehicle in about five minutes, making the charging experience almost indistinguishable from filling up a conventional fuel vehicle...

Andreas Breiter, co-director of McKinsey's Center for the Future of Transportation in North America, recently said, "One obvious solution to range anxiety is to increase the range of electric vehicles, and another is to make electric vehicles charge fast enough for people to charge them on the go."

"Due to the limited range that EVs can achieve and the number of batteries they can accommodate faster charging will be part of the solution, but there are trade-offs," Breiter said.

In a recent interview with the media, a Hyundai Motor Company said that the company believes that fast charging is crucial to promoting electric vehicle sales. The company noted that expanding infrastructure will provide more convenience for customers, and it has formed joint ventures with other automakers to build high-power electric vehicle charging networks in North America and Europe.

Currently, the challenges preventing the industry from achieving the "five-minute full charge" milestone include the following: super-fast charges may increase safety risks and reduce battery life; The availability faced by grid connections and the additional costs faced by installing ultra-fast chargers. The industry in Europe and the U.S. is also struggling with a consumer shift back to hybrids or to stick with gas-powered vehicles, as people have less incentive to switch to pure electric vehicles. Many potential EV buyers are still put off by the ordeal of being forced to interrupt their journey and spend up to an hour at a charging station...

However, there are several 800V fast charging electric models on the market that can use the L3 charger to replenish the power to about 80% in 20 minutes - that is, hundreds of kilometers of mileage. Charging speed is usually measured in the time it takes to charge from 10% to 80%, as the battery should ideally not be less than 10% charged, while charging speed slows down significantly between 80% and 100%.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, an L1 charger plugged into a standard home 120-volt AC outlet provides about 1 kilowatt of power, enough to charge an electric vehicle from near-empty to 80 percent in 40-50 hours. 240-volt L2 chargers for night charging typically provide up to 20 kilowatts of power with a charging time of 4-10 hours.

The latest ultra-fast L3 charger can bypass the on-board charger of electric vehicles and directly supply direct current to the battery, with power up to hundreds of kilowatts, greatly reducing the charging time. The Tesla Supercharger provides up to 250 kilowatts of power and can recharge up to 75 miles in five minutes, while Huawei's top-of-the-line charging pile provides 600 kilowatts.

China leads! Global battery companies "You catch me catch up"

Bernstein senior analyst Neil Beveridge pointed out that the leading battery manufacturers in China are now ahead of their competitors in producing batteries with the fastest charging times.

Among them, in April this year, CATL released the world's first new lithium iron phosphate battery that takes into account 1000 kilometers of battery life and 4C supercharge characteristics - Shenxing PLUS battery. According to the introduction, this battery can provide users with an ultra-long endurance experience of up to 1,000 kilometers, and achieve a 10-minute recharge of 600 kilometers, truly achieving a super recharge speed of "1 kilometer per second". In the same year, it also joined hands with SAIC General Motors to withdraw the industry's first 6C ultra-fast charge lithium iron phosphate battery, which integrates a number of atomic-level fast charge technologies in the battery field, including ultra-electronic net positive electrode technology, the second generation of graphite fast ion ring technology, ultra-high conductive solution formula, nanoscale ultra-thin SEI solid electrolyte interface film, optimized high porosity isolation film, etc., fully demonstrating its core innovation capabilities. Leading the LFP Super Fast Charger new track.

In addition, in May this year, Gotion also released the Starchen battery at the company's 13th Science and Technology conference. The Star battery uses a self-developed second-generation silicon carbon material and ultra-fast electrolyte, which supports a fast charge from 10% to 70% in 9 minutes. The battery pack equipped with the battery cell can complete a 350km battery charge in 5 minutes and a 600km battery charge in 10 minutes.

In response, some other national battery manufacturers are determined to close the gap. "In 2026, we will introduce a battery that can be fully charged in nine minutes," Goh Juh-young, vice president of battery maker Samsung SDI, said in a recent interview. "Our ultimate goal is to develop an electric vehicle battery that can match the [refuelling speed] of a petrol vehicle, which can travel 600km after five minutes of charging," Juh-young said.

Bernstein's Beveridge believes the automotive battery industry may be approaching a tipping point where owning an electric car will no longer be considered less convenient than owning a gas-powered vehicle. "If you look at the most advanced cars coming out of China, it will soon be the norm to be able to travel 700-800 kilometers on a 10-minute charge," he noted. That's more than enough for the vast majority of consumers, and that's why electric cars will ultimately win out."

Of course, at present, many people in the industry have also mentioned some technical drawbacks that need to be solved behind ultra-fast charging. Some experts say that there is evidence that excessive ultra-fast charging will shorten the life of the battery, but also increase the risk of the battery due to overheating and fire. For the electric vehicle industry, which is now paying more attention to battery safety due to multiple fire incidents, safety issues are obviously not a small matter. Kim Je-young, chief technology officer of LG New Energy, said that the biggest problem with fast charging at present is the temperature of the battery.

One of the reasons for China's leading battery charging speed is that its manufacturers are more focused on lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which are less prone to overheating than nickel-rich batteries from South Korean battery makers.

However, global companies are now trying to find solutions. LG Group, the parent company of LG New Energy, has recently announced the development of a temperature-responsive "safety enhancement layer" that is just one percent the thickness of a human hair and aims to reduce the risk of so-called thermal runaway, a major cause of battery fire.