From HEV to Ultra-fast Charging: The Path to Breakthrough in Battery Technology of Sunwoda
In 2026, car manufacturers are competing fiercely in terms of charging speed.
Recently, several car manufacturers, including BYD and ZEEKR, have successively released their own ultra-fast charging solutions, achieving a charging speed of over 1000kW - it only takes less than 5 minutes to charge from 20% to 80%.
Many industry insiders predict that after the early issues of battery safety and charging network density, charging efficiency has become another key factor restricting the popularization of electric vehicles. Some also say that this is likely to be the last factor restricting the popularization of electric vehicles.
Meanwhile, at the technical and commercial levels, the improvement of charging speed is also a culmination of many challenges in the electrification of automobiles. From the underlying batteries, to the development of the entire vehicle, and then to the construction of charging infrastructure, almost none of them can be missing.
Now, the power battery industry chain is ready to embrace the popularization of ultra-fast charging for new energy vehicles.
「Charging Efficiency: The Last Obstacle to the Popularization of Electric Vehicles」
“The past year 2025 was a year of ‘innovation and transformation’ for the power battery industry,” Dr. He Xuan, the assistant to the president of Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery Co., Ltd. and the general manager of the product line, commented on the current power battery industry during an exclusive interview with 36Kr recently.
In his view, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles exceeding 50% is a key node in the industry. In the early days, whether it was the public, car manufacturers, or power battery enterprises, people were more concerned about the cruising range or energy density. Now, with the gradual popularization of new energy vehicles, the charging speed, all - scenario safety, and all - around performance of batteries have begun to receive more attention.
Looking back at the development history of electric vehicles, the earliest challenge for electric vehicles was energy density. Before the emergence of lithium - ion batteries, lead - acid batteries could not meet the speed requirements of modern cars due to their extremely low energy density. The concept of “electric vehicles” was long associated with low - speed “electric bicycles” and shuttle “electric carts”. It was not until the early 21st century, with the application of high - energy - density lithium - ion batteries in electric vehicles, that this problem was solved.
Lithium - ion batteries made electric vehicles possible but also brought new challenges - safety. This is closely related to the physical and chemical properties of lithium - ion batteries. Lithium is located in the upper - left corner of the periodic table and is the most reactive metal. Compared with secondary batteries such as lead - acid batteries and nickel - hydrogen batteries common at that time, lithium - ion batteries are more prone to thermal runaway, and the risk of spread is greater. Especially in cases of abuse such as high temperature and mechanical collision, the risk of lithium - ion batteries is further magnified.
In the early stage of the development of new energy passenger cars, energy density and battery safety became the two core indicators for the industry regarding power batteries. The car manufacturers' pursuit of energy density, when transmitted to the public, formed a pursuit of cruising range. For passenger cars where interior space is at a premium, energy density is directly related to the cruising range. This anxiety about cruising range and safety has even led to a binary opposition between the ternary lithium and lithium iron phosphate technical routes in terms of policies and public opinion.
After 2020, with the continuous evolution of power battery technology, the opposition between the ternary lithium and lithium iron phosphate technical routes began to ease. The safety of ternary lithium has been significantly improved, and then, relying on its higher energy density and stronger performance, it has become the mainstream in the mid - to - high - end market. The shortcoming of the energy density of lithium iron phosphate has also been quickly made up by the Chinese power battery industry chain, and with its longer service life and lower cost, it has dominated the mid - to - low - end market.
However, in recent years, the power battery industry has not stopped evolving. Currently, with the continuous evolution of power batteries in terms of safety, cost, energy density, etc., and the gradual improvement of the charging network, the safety and charging convenience of new energy vehicles have been greatly improved. However, except for the battery - swapping mode, the charging speed of new energy vehicles is still far behind that of traditional fuel vehicles.
Industry insiders sighed that in the era of fuel vehicles, no one cared about the size of the fuel tank. But in the era of electric vehicles, the cruising range has become the core configuration to distinguish high - and low - end models. If new energy vehicles can achieve the same charging speed as refueling, their penetration rate will be significantly increased.
「Same Charging Speed as Refueling: It All Starts with the Battery」
Same charging speed as refueling is a great dream that needs to be jointly realized by car manufacturers, power battery suppliers, and charging service providers. And the first step of this dream is inseparable from the underlying support of the battery.
In the field of power batteries, the charge - discharge rate, energy density, and safety of batteries are often regarded as an “impossible triangle” - at the cell level, generally speaking, the higher the charge - discharge rate of a battery, the more serious its heat generation. Heat generation not only affects the battery life but also increases the risk of thermal runaway. Manufacturers can add safety designs in various aspects such as cell materials, process flow, thermal management, and active safety design to improve battery safety, but this often sacrifices energy density. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to create a good - performing and safe fast - charging battery.
How to improve the charge - discharge rate of the battery while ensuring its safety, service life, and energy density to obtain stronger performance and faster charging speed? The answers often focus on two directions. On the one hand, reduce the internal resistance of the battery to fundamentally reduce the heat generation of the battery; on the other hand, optimize the battery thermal management to improve the cooling performance of the battery so that the heat generated by the battery can be dissipated more quickly. Combine various active safety designs to avoid thermal runaway of the battery.
To achieve these two points, the solutions of each power battery enterprise will be different. Sunwoda has also given its own answer:
Take the Sunwoda ultra - fast charging battery installed in the Li Auto i6 as an example. At the material end, through the compounding of nano - and micro - scale lithium iron phosphate materials, combined with the design of a high - conductivity carbon layer and the low - resistance and high - conductivity diaphragm technology, the impedance of the material is comprehensively reduced; at the structure end, the lamination process is adopted, with a full - tab structure, which significantly reduces the internal resistance of the structural parts. Combining the two, the internal resistance of the cell is reduced to 0.36mΩ, and the temperature rise during ultra - fast charging is reduced by 6°C; during ultra - fast charging, the battery pack can use the direct - cooling and direct - heating technology for precise temperature control, and the refrigerant can directly enter the cold plate, and the heat dissipation efficiency is increased by more than 10%.
At the same time, Sunwoda has also created a four - level safety system for ultra - fast charging batteries, including intrinsic safety, passive safety, active safety, and safety in the whole life cycle/extremely harsh working conditions. Intrinsic safety prevents lithium deposition + controls temperature rise + enhances heat dissipation. For example, a 15C ultra - high - rate redundant design is made to fundamentally eliminate the risk of lithium deposition;
In addition to the two “must - answer questions” of reducing internal resistance and improving heat dissipation, Sunwoda has also done an “extra - credit question” - Sunwoda has cooperated with car manufacturers and partners. A “vehicle - pile - cloud” integrated safety system has been built, which can capture the signs of lithium deposition in the battery pack in milliseconds, adjust the current in real - time to guide lithium ions, and avoid the formation of lithium dendrites that may pierce the diaphragm and cause a short - circuit. These various safety strategies enable Sunwoda's ultra - fast charging batteries to achieve both high charge - discharge rates and safety.
「From HEV to Ultra - Fast Charging: The Further Evolution of Power Batteries」
If we look back at history, Sunwoda is one of the earliest enterprises in the Chinese power battery industry to layout ultra - fast charging batteries.
In the power battery industry, the most well - known label of Sunwoda is HEV batteries. And ultra - fast charging batteries and HEV share a common technical foundation. Moreover, the HEV batteries that Sunwoda is best at are not ordinary HEV batteries, but HEV batteries with high charge - discharge rates. In other words, Sunwoda has sufficient technical reserves in the field of ultra - fast charging.
In 2018, Sunwoda was designated by Nissan and jointly developed a dedicated battery for e - Power with Nissan. As a hybrid technology, e - Power is neither the early Japanese mild - hybrid solution nor the current mainstream plug - in hybrid and range - extended solutions in China. In the e - Power system, 100% of the vehicle's driving power comes from electric drive, and the engine is only used for power generation and does not drive the wheels. At the same time, e - Power is not a range - extended solution, as it does not support plug - in charging and is powered entirely by a “small battery” of about 2 kWh.
Realizing pure - electric drive with only a 2 - kWh “small battery” means that its battery needs an extremely high charge - discharge rate. It is understood that the charge - discharge rate of the early e - Power battery was about 30C, far exceeding that of BEV models in terms of indicators. Now, Sunwoda's HEV products have achieved 70C fast charging and 80C fast discharging. Public data shows that Sunwoda has won the championship of China's HEV lithium - ion battery sales for five consecutive years, with a cumulative shipment of over 2 million vehicles.
He Xuan said that within Sunwoda, the Nissan e - Power project is called the “Whampoa Military Academy”. It not only helped Sunwoda establish a technical foundation for high - power and high - reliability batteries but also helped Sunwoda cultivate a large number of technical and management talents. These technical and talent reserves have received direct rewards in the era of the explosion of ultra - fast charging batteries.
In 2022, Sunwoda launched its first - generation BEV ultra - fast charging battery for the pure - electric market. In 2024, Sunwoda launched the fast - charging battery 3.0, supporting a peak charging rate of 6C. In 2025, Sunwoda released the fast - charging battery 4.0, with a peak charging rate reaching 15C, and for the first time, the charging current was increased to 1800A; it can achieve a maximum energy replenishment of over 150km in 1 minute and 450km in 5 minutes. Currently, Sunwoda has reserved a full - system product from 4C to 10C+ (phosphate - based/ternary - based/mixed - doping, etc.), covering all sub - markets such as BEV/PHEV/EREV/HEV.
In fact, the changes brought about by ultra - fast charging will not be limited to the passenger car field. In recent years, with the in - depth promotion of the electrification transformation, new energy has witnessed a new round of explosion in the field of freight commercial vehicles such as on highways, ports, and mines. Special - purpose power batteries for heavy - duty trucks have also become the focus of industry attention.
In 2025, Sunwoda witnessed an explosion in the commercial vehicle market. It is predicted that in 2026, Sunwoda will also see a 3 - 5 times growth in the field of commercial vehicle power batteries. Sunwoda has also strengthened the research and development of batteries for the freight market. Currently, Sunwoda's 268Ah large - capacity lithium iron phosphate cells have achieved a 15 - minute fast charge (from 10% to 80% SOC).
In terms of future product layout, the “Xinhengeng Commercial Vehicle Ultra - Fast Charging Battery Gen3” that Sunwoda is about to launch uses multi - tab over - current technology, reducing the ohmic internal resistance by 12%. The heat source uses a coated cooling method, so that the maximum temperature rise during 10 - minute ultra - fast charging is ≤60°C, suppressing the heat generation during cell operation. With the support of many cutting - edge technologies, Sunwoda's 3rd - generation commercial vehicle batteries can greatly shorten the vehicle waiting time and improve the operational efficiency in commercial scenarios.
At the same time, the “Xinhengeng Commercial Vehicle Long - Life Battery Gen3” introduces pre - lithium technology and a long - life platform system, achieving a cycle life of over 10,000 times, providing more warranty guarantees for commercial users in different operating scenarios.
「Solid - State Batteries, Going Global, and Humanoid Robots: The Power Battery Industry Seeks a Second Growth Curve」
In 2026, with the popularization of ultra - fast charging batteries and the follow - up of car manufacturers and charging networks, the Chinese new energy vehicle industry is expected to witness a revolution in charging efficiency.
In He Xuan's view, in the next two years, mainstream new energy vehicle products in the 100,000 - 200,000 yuan segment will generally be equipped with 5 - 6C ultra - fast charging batteries. For products priced at 200,000 yuan and above, ultra - fast charging solutions of over 10C will become one of the core configurations that bring product premiums.
The improvement of charging speed brought about by ultra - fast charging is expected to attract more fuel - vehicle owners to join the new energy camp and can also become the core driving force for some new energy vehicle owners to upgrade. Undoubtedly, this will become a new opportunity for power battery manufacturers.
In recent years, with the intensification of competition in the power battery industry, industry leaders are all looking for new breakthroughs. Whether it is technological iteration or industry change, it may bring new variables to the battery industry.
Taking the technological upgrade brought about by solid - state batteries as an example, currently, Sunwoda has completed the verification of two generations of products in the semi - solid field and has the mass - production capacity, with a power density reaching 360Wh/kg. In October 2025, Sunwoda released the polymer all - solid - state battery “Xin·Bixiao”, with an energy density exceeding 400Wh/kg, and announced that it will invest in a 0.2GWh pilot production line.
However, in He Xuan's view, solid - state batteries may not bring subversive changes to the power battery and new energy vehicle fields in the short term. He believes that there is still room for improvement in the charge - discharge rate, energy density, and safety performance of liquid batteries. When the vehicle's cruising range reaches 1000km, further improvement in the cruising range may be difficult to translate into product competitiveness; it is expected that by 2030, the penetration rate of solid - state batteries in the new energy vehicle field will still be below 20%, only suitable for some high - end models; however, in the fields of consumer electronics, low - altitude aircraft, and humanoid robots, thanks to higher energy and power density, solid/semi - solid batteries will have more development space.
In recent years, humanoid robots have become the focus of public discussion, and China has become a high - ground for the humanoid robot industry chain. Different from automotive power batteries, humanoid robots have higher requirements for energy density, power density, structural applicability, and strength. Some products may require customized special - shaped batteries due to space layout reasons. Therefore, compared with automotive power batteries, the battery form of humanoid robots needs to be more extremely thin and light like consumer - grade batteries. In this field, Sunwoda has also launched solutions based on pouch and cylindrical batteries respectively.
Compared with solid - state batteries and humanoid robot batteries, the booming Chinese new energy vehicle industry going global has brought more possibilities for a second growth curve to power battery manufacturers. Currently, Sunwoda has built production bases in India, Vietnam, Hungary, Morocco, Thailand, etc., serving Chinese and overseas partners. Replicating more Chinese power battery industry models overseas and promoting the green transformation of the global transportation and mobility fields is becoming the new mission of Chinese power battery enterprises represented by Sunwoda.