Chery Joins China’s EV Charging Race With A Bold Promise

The automaker says its new battery can charge from 10% to 97% in under seven minutes.

Chery Automobile

Photo by: Chery

Andrei Nedelea

By: Andrei Nedelea

Oct 26, at 9:40am ET

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Chery says Volt-dragon can add 311 miles in five minutes and plans 20,000 V2G-enabled stations by 2029.
Chinese outlets report a room-temperature test achieved a 10–97% charge in six minutes and 50 seconds.
The test vehicle, battery capacity and timeline for customers to access that performance remain unclear.

Seven minutes used to be barely enough time to get a public charger working, buy a coffee, and try to remember where you parked. Chery says it’s now enough to take an EV battery from almost empty to almost full, an impressive claim. But it’s not clear which of its cars can actually do it.

At the Global Innovation Conference in Wuhu, China, on October 20, Chery demonstrated its “Volt-dragon” charging technology alongside a station combining solar generation, energy storage, and vehicle-to-grid capability. In its official announcements, the automaker claims the system can add 500 kilometers, or about 311 miles, of driving range in five minutes.

Chinese reporting from the event, picked up by CarNewsChina, offers a more eye-catching number: a room-temperature charging test that took the battery from 10% to 97% in six minutes and 50 seconds. The charging equipment’s advertised peak specifications are 1.44 megawatts and 1,500 amps. That doesn’t mean the car actually drew 1.44 MW, but even if it did, it obviously did not maintain it throughout the session.

Chery’s English-language releases confirm the five-minute range claim and its ambition to establish 20,000 V2G-enabled stations worldwide by 2029, but don’t provide the 6:50 charging time. Those releases also don't identify the test vehicle, battery capacity, or when the tech would hit the market. The range claim also lacks a specified test cycle, although it’s likely China’s CLTC.

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The clear takeaway is that Chery didn’t just want to demonstrate a very high charging rate. It wanted to show how a station integrates electricity generation and storage, and how bidirectional charging lets compatible vehicles return energy to the grid.

It also promises to make the equipment easier to use. It says the charging cable and connector together weigh just 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds), while operating noise stays below 50 decibels. Further down the road, it envisions robotic arms that could plug in for an even more seamless charging experience.

With this demonstration, Chery is joining a Chinese charging race increasingly measured in seconds. In March 2024, Li Auto revealed the Mega minivan, claiming it could add 500 kilometers of range in 12 minutes. Later that year, Zeekr was advertising a 10–80% charge in 10.5 minutes using its upgraded LFP battery and compatible ultra-fast chargers. Chinese manufacturers were already competing to make charging stops shorter before BYD’s five-minute announcement.

BYD’s March 2025 Super e-Platform reveal nevertheless raised the stakes. Its 1,000-volt architecture supported megawatt charging, with a claimed 249 miles (400 kilometers) added in five minutes. BYD also named the first cars with this capability (the Han L sedan and Tang L SUV).