In 2026, automakers are pushing the contest over charging speed into a new phase.
In recent weeks, several carmakers, including BYD and Zeekr, have introduced ultrafast charging systems that push charging power past 1,000 kilowatts. The result, according to the companies, is a charge from 20% to 80% in less than five minutes.
According to 36Kr, multiple industry insiders said that after years in which battery safety and charging network density were the main constraints on broader electric vehicle adoption, charging efficiency has now emerged as another key bottleneck. Some, 36Kr reported, see it as one of the last major barriers to wider EV adoption.
Faster charging also tests the technical and commercial foundations of vehicle electrification. From battery chemistry and pack design to vehicle integration and charging infrastructure, progress depends on coordination across the supply chain.
Sunwoda argues that the power battery supply chain is now prepared for the broader adoption of fast charging in new energy vehicles, or NEVs.
Recharging efficiency may be the last barrier to EV adoption
“The past year, 2025, was a year of reinvention for the power battery market,” He Xuan, assistant to the president of Sunwoda Power and general manager of its product line, told 36Kr.
In his view, NEV penetration passing 50% marked a turning point. In the sector’s earlier stages, public attention, automotive manufacturers, and battery makers were focused mainly on range and energy density. As NEVs became more common, charging speed, safety, and performance drew greater scrutiny.
In the early history of EV development, energy density was the main technical hurdle. Before lithium batteries were commercialized for automotive use, lead-acid batteries lacked the energy density needed to support modern passenger vehicles. For years, EVs remained associated with electric bicycles and shuttle carts. That changed in the early 21st century, when lithium batteries with sufficient energy density began appearing in cars.
Lithium-based batteries made modern EVs viable, but they also introduced a safety challenge tied to the chemistry itself. Compared with lead-acid and nickel-metal hydride batteries, lithium batteries are more vulnerable to thermal runaway and, once failure begins, to propagation. Those risks increase further under conditions such as high temperatures or mechanical impact.
In the early development of NEVs, energy density and battery safety became the two main benchmarks for power batteries. Automotive manufacturers’ pursuit of higher energy density translated into longer range for consumers. In passenger vehicles, where cabin space is limited, energy density is closely tied to range. Concerns over range and safety also fueled a policy and public debate over ternary lithium and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery technologies.
After 2020, as battery technology improved, the divide between ternary lithium and LFP began to narrow. Ternary lithium batteries became safer, and their higher energy density and performance made them the mainstream choice in the midrange and premium markets. At the same time, China’s supply chain improved LFP energy density enough for the chemistry to dominate the entry-level and midrange segments because of its longer service life and lower cost.
Even so, battery development has not slowed. Safety, cost, and energy density have all improved, and charging networks have continued to expand. That has made NEVs safer and more convenient. But aside from battery swapping, EV charging still takes far longer than refueling a gasoline vehicle.
Market observers often note that in the gasoline era, few consumers paid attention to fuel tank size. In the EV era, by contrast, range has become one of the main features separating premium trims from lower-end models. If NEVs can charge at speeds closer to refueling, their market penetration could rise further.
Matching refueling speed starts with the battery
Achieving charging speeds comparable to refueling will require coordination among automotive manufacturers, battery suppliers, and charging service providers. But it starts with the battery.
In the power battery segment, charging and discharging rate, energy density, and safety are widely seen as a set of competing tradeoffs. At the cell level, higher charging and discharging rates generally generate more heat. That heat can shorten battery life and raise the risk of thermal runaway. Manufacturers can improve safety through materials, production processes, thermal management, and active safety design, but those measures often come at the expense of energy density. That makes it difficult to build a fast-charging battery that is both practical and safe.
Battery makers trying to increase charging and discharging rates without sacrificing safety, lifespan, or energy density usually follow two paths. One is to reduce internal resistance, which cuts heat generation at the source. The other is to improve thermal management so heat dissipates more quickly, while pairing that with active safety systems designed to prevent thermal runaway.
Different battery makers have taken different approaches. Sunwoda has developed one of its own.
The Sunwoda battery used in the Li i6 offers one example. On the materials side, the company said it combines nanoscale and microscale LFP materials with a highly conductive carbon-layer design and low-resistance, high-conductivity separator technology to reduce material impedance. Structurally, it uses a stacked-cell process and a full-tab design, which the company said lowers resistance in key components. Together, those measures reduce cell internal resistance to 0.36 milliohms and cut temperature rise during fast charging by six degrees Celsius, according to Sunwoda.
The battery pack also uses direct cooling and heating for more precise thermal control, allowing coolant to enter the cooling plate directly and improving heat dissipation efficiency by more than 10%, the company said.
Sunwoda said it has also built a four-layer safety system for its fast-charging batteries, covering intrinsic safety, passive safety, active safety, and full-lifecycle safety under harsh operating conditions. Intrinsic safety measures are designed to suppress lithium plating, control temperature rise, and improve heat dissipation. The system also includes redundant design intended to reduce lithium-plating risk at the source, according to the company.
Beyond lowering internal resistance and improving heat dissipation, Sunwoda said it has built a safety system that links the vehicle, charger, and cloud. The company said the system can detect early signs of lithium plating inside a battery pack within milliseconds and adjust current in real time to guide lithium ions and reduce the formation of lithium dendrites that can pierce the separator and cause a short circuit. According to Sunwoda, these layered safety measures allow its fast-charging batteries to deliver high charge and discharge rates while maintaining safety performance.
The next evolution in power batteries
Sunwoda was among the earliest companies in China to invest in fast-charging battery technology.
In 2018, Sunwoda secured a supply nomination from Nissan and jointly developed a battery for Nissan’s e-Power system. The hybrid technology differs both from earlier hybrid systems developed by Japanese automotive manufacturers and from the plug-in hybrid and extended-range systems now common in China. In e-Power, propulsion comes entirely from the electric drive, while the engine acts only as a generator and does not drive the wheels. Unlike an extended-range system, e-Power also does not support plug-in charging and instead relies on a small battery of about two kilowatt-hours.
Using a two-kWh battery to support pure electric drive requires very high charging and discharging rates. According to available information cited by 36Kr, early e-Power batteries operated at roughly 30C, well above typical EV battery benchmarks. Sunwoda said its products now support up to 70C flash charging and 80C flash discharging. Publicly available data cited by the company show that it has ranked first in sales of hybrid EV lithium batteries in China for five consecutive years, with cumulative shipments exceeding two million units.
Within Sunwoda, Nissan’s e-Power program is regarded as the project that helped the company establish a technical foundation for high-power, high-reliability batteries while also building a deep bench of technical and managerial talent. Those technical and human capital reserves, the company argues, have paid off as fast-charging batteries have expanded.
In 2022, Sunwoda launched its first-generation fast-charging battery for the pure EV market. In 2024, it introduced the third version of its flash-charging battery, with peak charging at 6C. In 2025, it unveiled the next iteration, with peak charging at 15C and charging current reaching 1,800 amperes for the first time. According to the company, the battery can add as much as 150 kilometers of range in one minute and more than 450 kilometers in five minutes. Sunwoda’s portfolio now spans products from 4C to above 10C, across phosphate-based, ternary, and hybrid chemistries, and across multiple vehicle segments.
Fast charging is not reshaping only the passenger-vehicle market. In recent years, as electrification has deepened, NEVs have entered a new growth cycle in freight-focused commercial vehicle segments, including highway logistics, ports, and mining. That has made dedicated power batteries for heavy trucks another area of focus.
Sunwoda said it saw rapid growth in the commercial vehicle market last year. Forecasts cited by 36Kr suggest that in 2026, the company’s commercial vehicle power battery business could expand by another three to five times. Sunwoda has also stepped up R&D for freight applications. Its 268-ampere-hour LFP cell can already charge from 10% to 80% state of charge in 15 minutes, according to the company.
The company is also preparing to launch the third generation of its fast-charging battery for commercial vehicles, known phonetically as Xinhengneng. Sunwoda said the product reduces ohmic internal resistance by 12% and uses an encapsulated cooling design that keeps maximum temperature rise during a ten-minute charge to no more than 60 degrees Celsius. The company said those measures can reduce waiting times and improve operating efficiency in commercial applications.
Sunwoda added that the new Xinhengneng battery uses prelithiation technology and a long-life platform architecture to support more than 10,000 charge cycles, which could strengthen warranty protection across different operating scenarios.
Searching for a second growth curve
In 2026, as fast-charging batteries become more widely available and automotive manufacturers and charging networks adapt to support them, China’s NEV sector may be approaching another shift.
He said that within the next two years, mainstream NEV models in the RMB 100,000–200,000 range will broadly adopt 5C and 6C fast-charging batteries. In vehicles priced at RMB 200,000 and above, he said, solutions above 10C will become one of the core features supporting a price premium.
Faster charging could draw more gasoline vehicle owners into the NEV market while also giving existing EV owners another reason to upgrade. That could create a new opening for battery manufacturers.
As competition intensifies, leading battery companies are still searching for new sources of growth. Technology shifts and changing industry dynamics continue to present new variables.
Solid-state batteries offer one example. Sunwoda said it has completed validation of two generations of semi-solid-state products and now has mass-production capability, with energy density reaching 360 watt-hours per kilogram. In October 2025, the company unveiled its polymer all-solid-state battery, called Xinbixiao, with energy density above 400 Wh/kg, and announced plans to invest in a 0.2 GWh pilot production line.
Even so, He does not expect solid-state batteries to drive disruptive change in the near term. In his view, liquid-electrolyte batteries still have room to improve in charging and discharging rate, energy density, and safety. Once vehicle range reaches 1,000 kilometers, he said, further increases may become harder to convert into meaningful product differentiation.
He expects solid-state battery penetration in NEVs to remain below 20% through at least 2030, with adoption concentrated mainly in premium models. In consumer electronics, low-altitude aircraft, and humanoid robots, however, he said solid-state and semi-solid-state batteries may have greater room to grow because of their higher energy and power density.
Humanoid robots have also become a prominent topic of public discussion, and China has emerged as a major hub in the related supply chain. Unlike automotive batteries, humanoid robots require higher energy density, higher power density, greater structural adaptability, and stronger mechanical properties. Some products may even require irregularly shaped batteries because of space constraints. Compared with automotive batteries, batteries for humanoid robots need to move closer to the thinness and lightness of consumer batteries. Sunwoda said it has introduced solutions based on both pouch and cylindrical cells for this market.
Compared with solid-state batteries and humanoid robot batteries, however, the overseas expansion of China’s NEV sector may offer even broader possibilities for a second growth curve. Sunwoda has already established production bases in India, Vietnam, Hungary, Morocco, and Thailand to serve both Chinese and international partners. Exporting more of China’s power battery manufacturing model overseas, and supporting a greener global shift in mobility and transport, is becoming a new priority for Chinese battery makers, no less so for Sunwoda.
KrASIA features translated and adapted content that was originally published by 36Kr. This article was written by Xiao Xi for 36Kr.