The horror of the world's powerful presidents and prime ministers is understandable. Military equipment will eventually use those Chinese batteries. The Chinese have surpassed us in price, quality and ease of use. Even here, no one wants to buy our outdated junk, they are waiting for Chinese batteries to appear. By stopping the widespread use of Chinese technology here, we continue to pollute the environment for all people in the world and, of course, very importantly, for ourselves. Those of us who acknowledge the pollution problem sound like hypocritical idiots.
"SHANGHAI -- Two of the world's leading battery developers are locked in a technological race that has brought the charging time for an electric vehicle to just five minutes -- about the amount of time it takes to refuel a traditional gasoline-powered car.
And, in a twist with geopolitical ramifications, both of the technological leaders are Chinese. It is a show of prowess that underscores just how far China has extended its global dominance over next-generation technologies, in some cases leaving the U.S. years behind.
The claimed leap forward on EV batteries is the latest technological feat for a country that has stunned Western governments with a string of breakthroughs on artificial intelligence, semiconductors and EVs -- a vindication of leader Xi Jinping's ambitions of turning China into a global technological powerhouse.
Contemporary Amperex Technology, the world's biggest automotive-battery maker, said this week on the sidelines of Auto Shanghai, China's biggest auto show, that it has developed a new fast-charging system that, within five minutes, can power a car for 320 miles of driving.
By getting the charging time down to about the same time as it takes to refuel a gasoline-powered car, the Ningde, China-based company, known as CATL, appears to have further eroded a major obstacle to wider EV adoption.
CATL's announcement came just after that of fellow Chinese battery maker BYD, which also manufactures its own EVs that rival Tesla's products. In March, BYD, based in the southern Chinese technology hub of Shenzhen, said that its new charging technology is capable of providing 250 miles of range in five minutes.
The technologies won't be introduced on a wide scale right away. The batteries can only be charged at a network of superfast charging stations that is still being built out.
Mike Dunne, who runs a namesake automotive consulting firm, said CATL's and BYD's superfast charging technologies are a genuine breakthrough, but several challenges remain.
The new technology will cost more, and frequent use will wear out the battery cells, he said.
"It's more sizzle than steak," Dunne said.
Still, CATL's and BYD's technologies serve as the latest example of how China is years ahead of the U.S. in EV technology, even as the Trump administration intensifies efforts to curtail Chinese companies' access to cutting-edge technology.
China, under Xi, has long positioned EVs as a technological priority, while in Washington, concerns have grown among officials and lawmakers about energy security.
CATL is now responsible for making more than one-third of the EV batteries on the global market, including those inside made-in-China Teslas.
CATL and BYD's claimed technological advancements are unlikely to benefit U.S. consumers, at least in the near term, given sky-high tariffs levied by the U.S. against Chinese goods -- and in particular EVs manufactured in China.
It is a reminder of how divergent the automotive landscape, and the consumer experience, have become between China and the U.S., the world's two biggest economies and auto markets.
Chinese electric cars are an exceedingly rare sight on U.S. roads because of tariffs that were already at around 100% last year under import taxes levied by the Biden administration. Then, in a string of recent moves, President Trump slapped additional tariffs on most Chinese goods, including cars, of 145%.
Meanwhile, within China, Xi's top-down push has been broadly embraced by ordinary consumers, who are now as likely to buy electric and plug-in vehicles as traditional gas-powered cars, aided by relatively low electricity costs and a batch of consumption-related subsidies.
In March, 52% of passenger cars sold in the country were battery-electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids or range-extended vehicles, according to the China Passenger Car Association.
As adoption rapidly increased in China, homegrown players came to dominate the global EV supply chain -- including, crucially, batteries, perhaps the single most important technology underpinning EV performance. Many of these players got a big boost working alongside Tesla, the American EV pioneer that started making cars at its Shanghai plant in late 2019.
Now, global dependence on Chinese battery suppliers, paired with concerns that Chinese EVs could flood overseas markets and pose a threat to domestic players, have raised alarms in the U.S. and other Western markets.
In a bid to catch up, Ford is building a battery plant in the U.S. where it plans to manufacture batteries using CATL technology.
Chinese battery makers are leading producers of lithium-iron-phosphate, or LFP, batteries. These iron-based battery cells cost less than the nickel-and-cobalt combination used widely in North America and Europe.
CATL's newest fast-charging battery, the second generation of its Shenxing lineup, is an LFP battery with a range of about 500 miles. CATL said it improved electron-transmission efficiency to avoid overheating during rapid charging.
How quickly such batteries will be adopted on a wide scale is another matter, because of the need to develop the charging infrastructure. BYD has said it is working to build 4,000 compatible stations in China and that its charging system will be initially available only for two models, limiting its uptake in the near term.
Lihong Qin, president of Chinese EV maker NIO, which uses CATL's battery cells and offers its own battery-swap system, said carmakers need to see how quickly the rapid-charging technology scales up, referring to the infrastructure build-out.
"There is still a big difference between theoretical calculations and practical applications," Qin said.
China has more than 13 million EV-charging facilities nationwide, counting both publicly and privately operated ones, state media has reported. The U.S. has around 77,300 charging locations with about 230,000 EV-charging points in total, data from the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation showed. It is unclear if the two figures are directly comparable, but industry experts widely regard China's EV-charging environment to be far ahead of the U.S.'s.
Separately, on Monday, CATL introduced a new sodium-ion battery it calls Naxtra. At the moment, mainstream EV batteries are reliant on lithium, creating a potential bottleneck around supplies of the material. CATL said sodium-ion batteries, if mass-produced, could help reduce its dependence on lithium.
Sodium-ion batteries are made from a sodium compound called soda ash, which can be produced using table salt. Unlike lithium, sodium is easily accessible everywhere. The U.S. has also been working on developing this technology." [1]
1. Chinese Lead Charge On Fast EV Batteries. Kubota, Yoko. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 24 Apr 2025: A1.
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