Sunwoda unveils 15C LFP battery pack aiming for a 9-minute charge, and it could reshape EV fast charging

Charging time remains one of the biggest obstacles for wider EV adoption, especially for drivers who compare public charging stops with the speed of refuelling a petrol car.

Chinese battery maker Sunwoda says it is closing that gap with a new lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) pack designed for ultra-fast charging.

At an event in Beijing, Sunwoda introduced the Xingchi Supercharge Battery 2.0 and claimed it can charge from 5% to 95% in about 9 minutes under the right conditions.

The company also said a 5% to 75% charge could take about 5.5 minutes, a performance level that would require extremely high charging power.

Sunwoda’s pitch is built around a 15C charge rate, indicating the pack can accept current many times its capacity for short periods.

LFP chemistry is widely used in mass-market EVs due to cost and thermal stability, but it typically trades away peak charging speed compared with some nickel-based cells.

The company said the demonstration pack is not a small prototype, describing a full-size unit made up of 264 prismatic cells. Sunwoda listed specifications of about 98.8 kWh capacity and an 844.8 V architecture, aligning with the industry shift toward higher-voltage EV platforms to enable faster charging with manageable cable currents.

Heat management and battery ageing are key concerns at these power levels, so real-world results will depend on cooling design, charger capability and the charging curve across different temperatures.

Sunwoda says the pack can handle up to 1 800 A and still deliver more than 1 500 cycles, and it claims drivers would not be restricted from using ultra-fast charging during the warranty period.

Alongside the new EV pack, Sunwoda outlined a broader battery roadmap that includes cylindrical-cell solutions for hybrid packs in the 3 kWh to 7 kWh range. The company also said it is developing sodium-ion batteries for cost-sensitive applications, where lower energy density can be acceptable in exchange for cheaper materials.

Sunwoda additionally pointed to work on solid-state batteries, a long-term target across the industry for improved energy density and safety. It described a prototype with an energy density of 400 Wh/kg and suggested such technology could eventually support ranges approaching 1 000 km, though timelines and mass-production readiness were not detailed.

In the near term, the key question is deployment: ultra-fast claims only matter if vehicles, charging networks and standards can consistently deliver the required power.

With Chinese automakers and battery suppliers racing to cut charging times, Sunwoda’s 15C LFP announcement adds another high-profile contender to the fast-charging push.