CHINA: Flash Charging vs Swapping, Zeekr 009 Refresh and Conflict Slows Down Chinese EVs | 09 Mar 2026

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and layered reasoning with live API checks. It doesn't just help buyers find a car they

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3V News China, the podcast all about the world's biggest EV market. And every day, I bring

you headlines, analysis, and insights from the heart of China's booming EV industry

and decode it for the global EV audience. Now, BYD launched its second-generation blade

battery on the 5th of March and set out its flash charging China strategy. The pitch pairs

blade battery with megawatt flash charge 2 and backs it with a build-out of high-powered

plugs. BYD wants 20,000 megawatt level charging stations by the end of this year. They currently

have just over 4,200 of the existing flash charge stations, the AIM, placed 90% of urban

China within 5 kilometers of a 1,500 kilowatt plug 1.5 megawatts. They have framed that

against battery swapping. So what's better? Charge your EV quickly or go and change a battery

quickly? Well, they've said that it's not comparable to something like CATL. They are

scaling their battery swap network to just 2,500 stations, not 20,000. The hardware claim

rests on speed and cold weather performance. BYD says megawatt 2.0 pairs a blade battery

and a 10-70 charge in 5 minutes. A new thermal management system delivers 20-97% in 12 minutes,

even at minus 30 degrees Celsius. BYD also leans on safety, running simultaneous flash charging

and nail penetration tests with zero thermal runaway. And we'll get to that story at the very

end now. We'll come back to it rather. The bigger story sits in infrastructure maths. BYD wants

a station with a station model to cut the need for grid upgrades, 18,000 of their planned units.

We'll co-locate with existing sites like fuel filling stations, managed by partners.

Each unit uses an internal LFP pack of up to 300 kilowatt hours, drawing a steady 100 kilowatts

from the grid until it's full. But it can discharge, thanks to the high-sea rate battery and even

a super-capacitor at 1500 kilowatts. BYD claims this cut installation costs by 60% versus a

traditional high-voltage charger. And of course, BYD have all the battery technology to do it

all in-house, unlike others. Based on a 100 kilowatt grid draw and a 60 kilowatt hour charge,

one unit would serve 40 vehicles per day, and they want to build 20,000 units. BYD casts this

as a rival to battery swapping, rather than a crusade against it. General manager of branding

and PR at BYD called battery swapping and flash charging, different paths to the same destination.

The swapping field looks crowded. NEO has almost 3,800 swap stations, CATL runs over 1,000,

and ALTON has 521. NEO's numbers hint at YBID, thinks that flash charging wins on CapEx

and investment, and even 3-put-a-vehicles. NEO has sunk more than 18 billion. That's 2.5 billion

dollars into building out a swap network, analysts, PEG, BREAKEVEN, at 60 swaps a day per station.

NEO's network does 35 swaps per day right now. NEO Gen 4 can have 23 batteries,

and that's about 1.8 MWh of battery storage if each station is full, and there's peaks of 50 swaps

per day during the recent spring festival. BYD has also opened pre-sales of one of their new vehicles,

the charging very fast, the Song Ultra EV. It's a mid-size electric crossover,

and they're now to on-march the 5th last week. Prices start at 22,500 US dollars,

that's 155,000 RMB, with 4 trims, topping out at $26,800. The model first surfaced in January

this year, and BYD now pitches it at familiar targets, things like the GLEX-5,

Leap Motors C-11, GSEI on V. The Song Ultra rides on their new 800 volts 3.0 EVO platform.

It's 4.85 meters long, 1.9 meters wide, 1.67 meters tall. A single rear motor, 270 kW,

and a top speed of 130 miles an hour, or 210 KPH. Two battery sizes, by the way,

two LFP packs, either a 75.6 or an 82.7 kWh pack, the smaller one, on the China Cycle 385 miles,

the larger 144 miles. Both use BYD's second-gen blade battery, which BYD says lifts energy density by

5%, and of course that magic 5-minute charge to 70% state of charge. I mean, I love a 10-80,

but I know why they're giving the 10-70%, because it fits under 5 minutes. That is just a real

mental barrier. Less than a 5-minute stop, and off you go. The chassis uses continuous damping

system. You can also add their God's IB system with roof mounted lidar for $1,500 inside,

a 15.6-inch floating rotating screen, a 10.25-inch instrument cluster, two spoke steering wheel,

charging pads for your phones as well, and even big bed mode. Oh, I love big bed mode.

Letting the front seats recline fully to meet the rear cushions, also a decent-sized front trunk

as well, and at such a low cost, although not particularly low in China, but I think you

agree, that's not a massive price, starting at $22,500 USD to get access to this new alien

technology, which is how we view it outside of China, 1.5 megawatt charging. It is mind-blowing,

isn't it? So, a couple of BYD stories to get yourself underway. Zika, next in the news,

refreshing their 009 due to launch in the second quarter of 2026. So, we should get that by

summertime. We think the firm says it's shared the news early to offer transparency.

Something that's, I think, neo, perhaps suffered a lot within local press when they released the

ES8 in third-generation form last September overnight, and people had literally been buying the

previous version up until the day before. That got pushed back from people that had just bought

Gen 2 ES8, and then the third one is bigger, better, and it was cheaper. So, you'd be annoyed,

if you'd missed it. Whereas Zika says, this is all about transparency. So, though, the 009 is the

world's first pure electric luxury MPV in their words. It also says the 009 has been China's best-selling

MPV above $400,000 MB for the two consecutive years. The headline change is under the floor. It's

the new 900-volt architecture system, and the update brings Nvidia's drive through you chip

with more intelligent driving capabilities. In the meantime, Zika offers financing for the current

009 with ultra-low interest, 0% for five years, and also saying, hey, we're going to bring a new one.

So, make your purchase decisions accordingly. So, I think it's a very, I don't know, very honest

way to go about your business, and let people know, look, there's a new one. This one's going

to be great. The next one's going to be great. If you can't wait, then go now. It avoids all

to the pushback. Some of that negative publicity that Neo suffered with the ES8. But then again,

Neo's point back in return was, well, would you rather we survived than made money? Or would you

rather have just bought a car and the car company goes bust? Because we need to make some money,

which they do, and are starting to. And that's a good thing. Staying with Zika, they've completed

first deliveries of the 7X. That is an all-electric SUV, and they did it in Germany. Adding another

market to their European rollout, the brand has started operations in Italy, Spain, and Portugal as well.

France is next on the list. Zika is now in 10 European countries after entering here in June

2023. And the 7X sits really at the heart of that push. That is a very popular size vehicle in SUV

form as well. They have the model on sale in Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway as of 2024. And there's

three variants over here. Europe forms any part of the plan. Zika's internationalization strategy,

which is easy for me to say, targets more than 50 countries globally. Total global sales are now

over 690,000 vehicles. When I say total global sales, that is obviously including China as well,

not overseas sales. So heading towards 700,000 in total for Zika. Last year, they delivered almost a

quarter of a million vehicles. Now, Chinese auto trader Lee Chin has nearly 500 exported vehicles

stranded in the Gulf of Oman right now. After the straight-of-the-mouse effectively closed,

thanks to Clonfict in the conflict in the Middle East, the cargo is worth $8.7 million. That's

$60 million RMB. And it can't enter the Persian Gulf. And so this particular also importer,

exporter, is just sitting on a shipload of Chinese EVs that can't go anywhere.

There's lost all contact with the Iranian buyer following conflict. The brands on board remain

unknown, though. Nine days into the conflict, the Iran continues, retaliatory.

Misal and drone strikes against other countries. Commercial shipping through the straight has been

paralyzed since the second of March. And that waterway has now been closed. A joint maritime

information center report said that only two commercial crossings recently happened in a 24-hour

window. Before it, it was 838 ships a day. Oil price is also jumping. Up 28% last week to $92.69.

Since the largest weekly gain in six years, well, April 2020, at the outbreak of lockdown,

globally, was the last time it surged in a single week. US crude surged 36% last week.

It's biggest weekly gain on record. For now, for Chinese exporters, the timing

matters. China shipped 1.39 million vehicles to Gulf countries last year.

The Middle East is China's second largest overseas auto market, Saudi Arabia, UAE,

absorbing almost a million of those vehicles last year, up 30% year on year.

Chinese freight agents working. The Middle Eastern routes described a week of paralysis with no

response from the counterparts since the conflict began. Okay, moving on, NEO rolled off its 2 million

electric drive units on the 5th of March. The second electric drive manufacturing plant in

Hefei in Inui province. The unit will power the all-new ES-8s. The milestone is about 23 months

after NEO reached 1 million drive units in March 2024. NEO runs two electric plants at NEO Park

in Hefei. The first plant reached half a million in July 2022 and crossed a million units in 2024.

NEO links the second plant's output to automation and quality using highly automated production lines

with 94% efficiency rate they say and a 99.6% product pass rate. NEO is also going to build a

dedicated R&D base in Shanghai's Jia Ding district. The site will focus on next-gen battery

technologies, solid state. There's a new Shanghai subsidiary that will manage that. NEO says

the facility will strengthen the local EV supply chain, wanting closer ties with nearby firms

in things like the battery materials industries, electric drive and battery swapping infrastructure.

NEO is penciled in the full-scale deployment of next-gen battery technologies for after 2027.

We are entering a 12 to 24-month period where solid state will be commercialized at scale in China.

We'll take a break. We'll talk about Glee and that BYD story back in a moment.

We're welcome back to the podcast. A couple of stories to finish off with to start our brand

new week of even use China pods. Well, Glee's galaxy sub brand will launch the new Xing Yao seven

the Xing Yao sevens amid size plug in hybrid sedan and it's going to launch in the next few weeks

at 13,800 dollars equivalent. The Xing Yao seven is almost five meters long as 195 inches plus

and a 2.85 meter wheelbase. It stretches beyond the galaxy A7. I push up in size but without

to push up in price say large family sedan at an incredible 100,000 RMB price point like I say

13,800 13,800 maybe 14,000 dollars. Styling follows Glee design language which they call

the ripple aesthetics. They do. It's a vertical slad grill and slim headlights. So it's 1.5

liter plug in hybrid powertrain very, very common and a high capacity battery pack 37 miles

or 78 miles depending on pack size of all electric range. Glee also fits in an all-wheel drive

system in that model very rare at that particular price point. Sales will run through Glee Galaxy's

star net channel. A dedicated retail network built around. Well, they say it's high quality

and competitive prices. That is again a reminder about how competitive Chinese prices can be.

Now we'll finish off with an incredible story and if you are ever able to click on a link in

the show notes, I'll put a link to this story with pictures in the show notes because a silver

BYD seal caught fire on Hong Kong's roads on the 3rd of March. The fire started around 2 o'clock

in the afternoon and was suppressed by 219 and 18 minute response time for local authorities.

The technical inspection at a BYD service center is what's been captured here in picture form.

They wanted to point out there was no mechanical fault and there was no electrical fault.

Investigators traced the fire to a portable power bank that was sitting on the passenger seat

that went into a thermal runaway so I would assume and that's a dangerous thing to do that it

was on charge at the time. It's rare for even a very cheap portable power bank to suddenly have

a thermal runaway event if it wasn't either charging or discharging but the lady who had it in

the car with her and there's no I said it was going to wear these cheap power banks as in

it wasn't an expensive car battery that went up in flames. It might have been a very good brand,

I don't know, but either way BYD said that the high voltage system didn't start the fire

and there's proof of that because the upper cabin, well pretty much the whole car to be honest,

like the car is a charred mess. The whole thing, heat has melted the interior. So the plastics,

the glass, the interior, it's all gone. You get the metal frame of the car left but that's it.

The blade battery pack and the integrated chassis around the battery looks like new.

This is insane. The car is destroyed. The whole thing is just a black piece of metal

and yet when they peeled off the plastic around the battery pack, it looks fine. The blade

battery was all intact and the cells didn't react to the intense heat. There was no thermal runaway

event and that detail matters because it's an LFP lithium ion phosphate chemistry blade battery

and LFP needs temperatures over 500 degrees Celsius. If you are going to get anywhere near

triggering an exothermic reaction, whereas traditional NMC and you can start to head towards

200 degrees Celsius and have thermal runaway events. So BYD said that the honeycomb aluminum

structure is the thermal barrier that stops the cabin fire breaching the cell compartment.

The seal rides on BYD's E-platform 3, cell-to-body technology and fuses the battery pack itself

into the chassis as a structural element for more torsional rigidity,

cost-savings as well like a sandwich design built around high-strength aluminum panels that

surround it. And yeah if you get a chance to look at the pictures of this one, it's incredible.

The cars are destroyed and the battery pack is just sitting there quite happily. No thermal runaway

event. A nice little story that counters the general narrative in the kind of lazy media that

they see an EV on fire and, well, assume the worst. There we go. Let's your podcast for

tonight. Thanks for listening. See you on the next one.

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