CATL unveils its new battery tech that charges in five minutes, offers huge range but doesn’t cost a fortune

• CATL unveils second generation of its "Shenxing" fast-charging battery
• A five-minute charge can add over 320-miles of range
• The lithium-iron phosphate battery cells are cheaper than nickel-rich rivals

China’s EV giants are currently embroiled in a battery charging arms race, as the likes of BYD, Huawei, and Zeekr all recently announced that they had cracked 1MW charging speeds for five-minute battery top-ups.

CATL, which is the world’s largest EV battery manufacturer by a long way, has also joined in the competition, announcing that its next-generation 'Shenxing' LFP (lithium-ion phosphate) battery can add over 320 miles in just five minutes from the appropriate but currently thin-on-the-ground 1MW fast charging outlets.

Boasting that the batteries will feature in more than 67 new EVs due to arrive this year, CATL’s Chief Technology Officer, Gao Huan, said the goal is to make the Shenxing technology "the standard ...