- CATL says its new Shenxing 3 battery charges in just 6.5 minutes.
- The company also unveiled lighter batteries with up to 1,500 km range.
- CATL is betting fast charging and battery swapping will drive EV adoption.
Electric vehicles are quick, quiet, and typically offer awesome packaging and an easier maintenance schedule than combustion-powered cars. Where they struggle to keep up with their gas-powered competition is on the refueling side of things. Charging infrastructure is nowhere near what it is for gas-powered cars, and when one does find a charger, it can take a long time to get a battery that’s flat back to full. Now, CATL says it’s found a solution, and it’ll charge a battery from 10 to 98 percent in just 6.5 minutes.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the new Shenxing 3 battery can hit that mark in roughly 6.5 minutes, beating the approximately nine-minute charging capability BYD revealed just last month. Bernstein analysts told the publication the new battery “effectively closes the gap with ICE vehicles.”
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CATL says the new pack is capable of a 10C charging rate and can go from 10 to 80 percent in just 3 minutes and 44 seconds. Even more impressive, the company claims the battery can still charge from 20 to 98 percent in around nine minutes even when temperatures plunge to -22 degrees Fahrenheit (-30 Celsius). Perhaps most impressive is that CATL says these charging speeds don’t destroy long-term battery life. Evidently, the Shenxing 3 still retains over 90 percent of its capacity after 1,000 full charging cycles.
CATL also introduced the new Qilin 3 battery, which it says can deliver up to 621 miles (1,000 km) of range while weighing just 1,378 pounds (625 kg). That makes it significantly lighter than comparable packs and, according to the company, improves efficiency, acceleration, braking, and handling. Oh, and wait, there’s more.
A new Qilin Condensed battery can deliver up to 932 miles (1,500 km) of range in a sedan or over 621 miles (1,000 km) in a full-size SUV. Obviously, that kind of range would be a giant benefit for the EV industry as it would reduce range anxiety and the need for additional charging infrastructure.
CATL says the Shenxing 3 and Qilin 3 batteries are intended for production vehicles rather than distant concepts, with the first applications likely arriving within the next year or so. The more ambitious Qilin Condensed battery appears further off, while CATL says its sodium-ion battery will enter mass production by the end of 2026.
