Chery announces 1.44MW Volt-dragon charging system with 500km in five minutes claim

What Chery announced

Chery has announced the Volt-dragon charging system, its entry into China's megawatt charging race, at its in-house Global Innovation Conference in Anhui. According to CarNewsChina reporting on the announcement, the system peaks at 1.44 megawatts, and Chery claims users can gain 500km of driving range in five minutes of charging. The automaker also says a 10 to 97 per cent charging session will take 6 minutes and 50 seconds. ¹

CarNewsChina notes that in more conservative scenarios Volt-dragon can add 500km of range in eight minutes. The performance figures are manufacturer claims, and the publication reports that Chery has not yet announced which vehicles or models the 500km-in-five-minutes metric applies to, though supported vehicles are expected to be built on 800V or even 1000V-plus platforms. ¹

The charging race and where Chery stands

On the figures Chery has published, CarNewsChina describes Volt-dragon as the current runner-up in China's megawatt charging race. Its comparison table places CATL's third-gen Shenxing battery at the top, with a 10 to 98 per cent charge in 6 minutes and 27 seconds, ahead of Chery's 10 to 97 per cent in 6 minutes and 50 seconds. Other players, including BYD's Blade Battery 2.0, Geely's Energee Golden Brick and Hongqi Ultra Fast Charging, sit in the eight-to-nine-minute range on the same comparison. ¹

CarNewsChina reports that Chery remains tight-lipped on other charging metrics and has not published how the Volt-dragon system performs in extreme heat or cold, so real-world behaviour at temperature extremes remains unconfirmed. The comparison figures compiled by the publication rely on each maker's own claimed charge times and are not like-for-like independent measurements. ¹

Stations, hardware and vehicle-to-grid

Chery says Volt-dragon chargers will use its latest-generation silicon carbide power electronics, with an overall grid-to-plug system efficiency of 96.5 per cent, and the stations will use immersion liquid cooling to dissipate heat during megawatt charging, according to CarNewsChina. The charging cables have been optimised for weight, with the plug-and-cable combination weighing 2kg, and Chery claims stations will not exceed 50 dBA during operation. ¹

The system also supports vehicle-to-grid technology, so Chery says NEVs will be able to export electricity to the grid for profit, and Chery is promising automated charging via robotic arms for a drive-thru experience. Separately, a Chery press release distributed via Globenewswire describes the automaker's smart energy centre in Wuhu as China's first AC vehicle-to-grid demonstration station deployed at scale, integrating solar power, energy storage and charging in a local microgrid, with bidirectional V2G allowing vehicles to charge off-peak and return power during peak demand. ¹³

According to the same Globenewswire press release, the Wuhu smart-energy centre is being showcased to more than 2,000 guests and users from around the world during the 2026 Chery International User Summit, running from October 19 to 23 in Wuhu, Anhui. The release also states that at an electric heavy-duty truck park in Spain, Chery has implemented a microgrid integrating solar power, energy storage and high-power charging, which the company presents as a replicable smart-energy model for freight operations. These deployments are the company's own description of its infrastructure, but they ground the V2G capability in operating sites rather than concepts alone. ³

Rollout plans and context

Chery says it is opening 100 Volt-dragon stations in 10 cities across China, with further expansion plans to be announced before the end of 2026. The stated end goal is more than 20,000 Volt-dragon V2G-capable stations worldwide by 2029. For context, CarNewsChina notes BYD hit 10,000 Flash Charging stations in late August this year and aims to reach 20,000 before the end of 2026. ¹

The Volt-dragon announcement extends a roadmap Chery has been building publicly. At the 2025 Chery International User Summit, Numerama reported the automaker's then-named 1.2MW Xulon Charging concept, said to recover 500km of range in about five minutes, alongside a 1000V Mars Architecture platform with 10 to 80 per cent charging in as little as eight minutes. The 2026 press release for this year's summit, distributed via Globenewswire, also mentions Chery's Volt-dragon Charger technology alongside research into superconducting charging and solid-state batteries, with laboratory solid-state samples demonstrating high stress tolerance. ⁴³

Battery background and Australian context

The charging system sits alongside Chery's battery program. Chery Australia's own reporting on the 2026 Chery Auto Battery Night in Wuhu describes the next-generation Rhino battery, which Chery says can deliver up to 500km of range in eight minutes and support up to 5,000 charge cycles, with a family spanning hybrid, battery-electric and future solid-state variants. Chery says current solid-state prototypes achieve 400 Wh/kg energy density, with a roadmap targeting 600 Wh/kg. These remain manufacturer claims and targets. ²

No Australian availability for Volt-dragon charging or the supporting high-voltage vehicles has been announced in the available material. Chery and Omoda Jaecoo's Australian electrified line-up currently spans hybrid, plug-in hybrid and full electric models, according to Chery Australia's own release, but whether any local model will support megawatt-level charging rates is not stated and cannot be inferred from the Chinese-market rollout plans. ²

AI and open questions

The Volt-dragon system was announced at the Global Innovation Conference alongside Chery's own large language model, CheryMind, which Chery says will power robotaxis, L4 assisted-driving systems and the charging network. CarNewsChina notes Chery has not disclosed how CheryMind works with the charging network, while Geely says its Xingrui PowerMind energy LLM predicts changes in cell temperature 30 seconds in advance and dynamically adjusts maximum allowed charging power. ¹

For buyers, the practical picture is that all headline Volt-dragon figures — the 1.44MW peak, the 500km in five minutes, the 6 minutes 50 seconds session time — are Chery claims, unverified independently and not yet tied to named compatible models. Which vehicles reach the network, when the 100 stations open in their 10 cities, and how the system performs in extreme temperatures all remain open questions awaiting dated confirmation from Chery. ¹