CATL debuts Shenxing 3-minute charge

Electric-vehicle charging is a power problem: the battery has to absorb a huge burst of energy without overheating or degrading. On April 21, CATL said its new Shenxing battery can do that much faster than its earlier packs. (catl.com) CATL unveiled the third-generation Shenxing Superfast Charging Battery at its Super Technology Day in Beijing, alongside new Qilin, sodium-ion and hybrid battery products. The company said Shenxing is a lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, battery built for very high charging rates. (catl.com) The headline numbers were unusually aggressive. CATL said the battery can charge from 10% to 35% in 1 minute, from 10% to 80% in 3 minutes 44 seconds, and from 10% to 98% in 6 minutes 27 seconds. (catl.com) (carnewschina.com) LFP batteries are usually cheaper and safer than nickel-rich packs, but they have trailed on energy density and, in many cases, charging speed. CATL is trying to narrow that tradeoff by pushing more current into an LFP cell in a shorter time. (catl.com 1) (catl.com 2) CATL said the new Shenxing reaches a 10C charging rate, with a 15C peak, and cuts internal resistance to 0.25 milliohms. In plain terms, lower resistance means less energy wasted as heat when the charger pushes power into the pack. (carnewschina.com) (battery-tech.net) The company also tied the battery to cold-weather charging, another weak spot for electric cars. CATL said the pack can charge from 20% to 98% in about 9 minutes at minus 30 degrees Celsius. (battery-tech.net) (carnewschina.com) This is the third step in a rapid sequence. CATL’s first Shenxing battery, launched in August 2023, promised 400 kilometers of range from a 10-minute charge, and the second-generation version unveiled on April 21, 2025, was pitched as the first LFP battery with 800 kilometers of range and a peak 12C charging speed. (catl.com 1) (catl.com 2) The timing also puts CATL directly against BYD, which on March 5 said its second-generation Blade Battery can charge from 10% to 97% in 9 minutes and from 10% to 70% in 5 minutes. BYD also said it had built 4,239 flash-charging stations and wants 20,000 in China by the end of 2026. (byd.com) (media.byd.com) Fast battery claims only matter if chargers and cars can use them. CATL said its April 21 launch included a fully integrated supercharging and battery-swapping solution, signaling that the race is shifting from cell chemistry alone to the whole charging system around it. (catl.com) CATL’s claim is still a manufacturer claim, not an independent road test. But the company put a concrete date, a concrete product name and concrete charge curves on the table, and that is now the benchmark rivals have to answer. (catl.com)