Geely staged its answer to BYD's ultra-fast charging push on September 23, unveiling the AI-powered Geely Smart Charging technology together with a fifth-generation smart charging station at an event in Ningbo. The Shendun Golden Battery at the heart of the system supports a peak charging rate of up to 12C, and in real-vehicle tests a Lynk & Co 10 and a Zeekr 001 fitted with it went from 10% to 70% charge in 4 minutes 30 seconds, reaching 97% at the 8-minute-40-second mark. Geely bills that as the fastest production-ready charging performance yet; BYD's second-generation Blade Battery with its March-launched flash charger needs five minutes and nine minutes for the same two increments.
The new station tops out at 2,250 kW of peak power, eclipsing the 1,500 kW single-gun maximum of BYD's flash charging pile, which had been the highest among mass-produced chargers worldwide. Underpinning it all is Xingrui PowerMind, an energy AI model co-developed with startup StepFun that orchestrates the vehicle, battery, station, cloud, grid and storage to tailor a strategy for each car. It forecasts battery temperature up to 30 seconds ahead and adjusts power on the fly, targeting an average battery temperature below 55°C with peaks under 65°C, while a five-point liquid-cooling layout spanning the entire chain from station-side storage to the pack is what Geely calls an industry first.
Geely also moved to soothe durability concerns, introducing a lithium-ion pulse restoration technique that fires micro-pulse currents at lithium ions building up on the negative electrode; combined with AI charging management, it stretches cycle life by as much as 20%. For affordable models, a next-generation Ultra Short Blade Battery leans on in-house laser welding to trim charging heat by 10% while lifting the peak rate to 6C.
The reveal lands in a red-hot flash-charging race in China, where BYD remains the most aggressive player: the same day, it said its 2,000th highway flash charging station opens September 24, on top of the 10,000 stations built as of August 28 and a 20,000 target for year-end. Battery maker Sunwoda last week matched BYD's charging metrics with its own flash-charging cell and plans 10,000 megawatt-level stations by end-2027, and Hongqi showed a July test clearing the 10-70% sprint in just 3 minutes 41 seconds, though without a mass-production date.