Chery joins the megawatt race with a 1.44 MW EV charger

China's megawatt charging race has a new entrant. Chery, the state-owned carmaker behind brands such as Jetour and Exeed, has unveiled a charging system called Volt-Dragon with a claimed peak output of 1.44 MW, electrive reports, citing CarNewsChina.

The headline claims

Chery presented the charger at its in-house Global Innovation Conference in Wuhu. According to the company:

• 10–97% in 6 minutes 50 seconds on a compatible car;
• roughly 500 km of range in five minutes in the best case (about eight minutes in more conservative conditions);
• silicon carbide power electronics with a quoted grid-to-plug efficiency of 96.5%;
• immersion liquid cooling, a plug-and-cable set weighing about 2 kg, and operating noise below 50 dBA.

These are manufacturer figures. Chery hasn't said which vehicles they were measured on, or how the system performs in extreme heat or cold, where charging speeds usually drop.

Where it sits against BYD, Huawei and Geely

BYD, Huawei and Geely are already rolling out their own megawatt chargers. BYD quotes 6 minutes 27 seconds for 10–98% with its Flash Charging system, while Huawei and Geely quote roughly 8–9 minutes for a similar window. On paper, Chery's claim puts it close behind the fastest rival rather than ahead of it.

Stations, V2G and robot arms

The first phase covers 100 stations in ten Chinese cities, with a more detailed expansion plan promised before the end of 2026. Longer term, Chery wants more than 20,000 Volt-Dragon stations worldwide by 2029, all able to do vehicle-to-grid (V2G), meaning cars could feed power back to the grid. The company also showed automated charging with a robotic arm for a drive-through-style experience. For scale, BYD passed 10,000 Flash Charging stations in August and aims for 20,000 by the end of this year.

Chery also launched its own AI model, CheryMind, which it says will be linked to robotaxis, driver assistance and the charging network, though it hasn't explained what the model will actually do for charging.

What it means for drivers

Megawatt charging only pays off if the car's battery and platform can take it, which is why compatible models are expected to use 800 V or 1,000 V architectures. If you're charging at home or on ordinary public chargers, our guides to home EV chargers, LFP vs NMC batteries and EV battery care are more relevant day to day.