CHINA: BYD Eyes 1500kW Charging, CATL’s Sodium Bet and Xpeng P7+ | 03 Feb 2026

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Grab the ropes, make your waves count. Welcome back to EV News China. Today,

BYD eyes 1500 kilowatt charging. CATL's Sodium Bet and the X-Pung P7 Plus,

plus they tuned later in the show, I'll tell you why Avatar is heading into a segment most of its

rivals run away from. Welcome to EV News China, the podcast dedicated to the world's biggest EV

market each day. I bring you insights, headlines and analysis from the heart of China's booming

EV industry and decode how fast moving developments in the east shape the global EV

landscape. BYD plans to raise the bar on fast charging again. A leak from China points

to a next generation megawatt charger. It was rated at 1500 kilowatts and 1500 amps at 1000 volts.

That's a 1.5 times power increase over their current best megawatt charging system. The jump

from 1000 to 1500 matters in a market that treats charging speed as a weapon. High power cuts,

dwell time for heavy trucks, long range buses and high-end EVs on tight duty cycles. In China's dense

logistics hubs, minutes off a charge stop adds more turns per vehicle per day. This leak, which is

the little photograph of the charging station, appears to not be being used and the little kind

of boilerplate thing, the stamping plate that you get at the bottom of a charging station.

This is what's come out online today. The leak hints that BYD will not just tweak

existing hardware for an incremental improvement, but push its cables, connectors and cooling

to a whole new level. Safety is important. It brings trade-offs, thicker, heavier liquid-cooled

cables, more complex charge posts and tighter demands on-site infrastructure. Grid links

are able to feed 1500 kilowatts per stall that won't be everywhere, even in China.

Beijing's tilt towards electric freight and buses gives this hardware a natural home market.

High-power depots on fixed routes can justify the cost long before private car networks.

There's no saying where this leak has come from. If BYD rolls out 1500 kilowatt DC fast

charging, it will further entrench China's lead in heavy-duty charging and set a benchmark

that Western rivals can only dream of. Especially if it comes to cars sooner or later. Wow. 1500

kilowatts. Let's move on. CATL has drawn a clear roadmap for sodium-ion batteries and is now tying

it to real cars, real grid storage and real battery swapping. Chang'an, one of China's

largest state-backed car makers, has joined the party, betting that sodium cells will cut costs

and curb cold weather problems, but still dog some EVs. The plan targets scale, not showpiece

pilots. CATL wants sodium packs in mass market passenger cars, where price pressure bites the

hardest, and in static energy storage, where cycle life and safety matter more than anything.

Swapping systems add a third strand. Standardised sodium modules will bring

cheap, fast replacements for city cars and ride-hailing fleets. Cold climate trials form

the nearest-term tests. Northern China, with its long sub-zero winters, now offers a hard-proving

ground for the chemistry that promises better low-temperature performance than many lithium-ion

phosphate packs. Data from these trials now shapes how quickly Chang'an puts these sodium

packs into volume models and how far CATL pushes the technology into export markets

with similar winters like in the Northern Europe region, Eastern Europe, and parts of North America.

So, talked about sodium ion batteries a fair bit in 2026 so far, I think we'll talk plenty more.

Zika has joined the Lunar New Year Sales Party, with one of China's longest cheap credit

offers. From February 1st to the end of the month, the Geely-backed brand will sell its

full range, with low-interest instalment plans up to seven years. Buyers can put down as little as

$30,000 with monthly payments from $1,600 across the lineup. Three models get the most generous terms,

the Zika 007, 007 GT and 009. Seven-year plan, 0% interest for the first 60 months.

Wow, and then 2.5% from month 61 to 84. The structure of five years and two years cuts

interest costs versus standard finance in China's NEV market, where car makers now rely on ultra-long

low zero-interest loans to stimulate demand by tying its effort to the Spring Festival

purchase season. The brand aims to stretch the holiday buying window rather than rely

on a short-lived price cut, and of course, Beijing is much happier if the car makers are not

indulging in that price war. Now, X-Pang has rolled out its updated P7 Plus in China,

and also for Europe as well, a vehicle they'll be made in Europe under contract manufacturing

terms, tightening its aim at the crowded mid-size electric saloon segment at home,

and giving its export market a really big push. The launch turns the P7 Plus into the latest test

of whether Chinese brands can scale abroad and fend off fierce price rivalry on their doorstep.

In China, the P7 Plus enters the market, where domestic car makers are really cutting

prices and adding features at a pace that unnerves the foreign rivals. X-Pang,

which once leaned on subsidies and probably some tech bravado back in the day,

is now about volume and discipline. The P7 Plus badge signals evolution,

rather than a clean break, and updates to keep an existing line relevant.

Europe brings a different trial. There are P7 Pluses now landing in Europe, like I say,

under contract manufacturing, with the shadow of trade rous, security worries, and talk of

tariffs ever present. X-Pang pitches the model as a premium, but still keenly priced alternative

to the established European marks. The twin launch shows how Chinese firms now treat Europe

not as an afterthought, or as a nice-to-have. It's part of product planning from the beginning,

from the outset. Homologation, charging standards, and software integration.

They add cost and complexity for the Chinese car makers, but X-Pang chose to synchronize the

P7 Plus update across multiple regions, rather than staggering it. Details of the package,

trims, pricing, and tech specs, which sit behind the marketing push, all to come. For now,

its presence in China and Europe underlines the fact that Chinese EV makers are no longer

just defending home turf, they are designing it with export in mind from the very start.

That's a really big change, actually. Xiaomi says their Su7 has covered 265,000km in 18 months,

and one of them lost only 5.5% of its battery capacity, a car that shows 94.5% state of health

on a 265,000km Su7. Now, of course, Xiaomi's been around in the EV industry

all of 5 minutes, that's slightly unfair of me to say, but it's less than 2 years in terms of

the cars actually being on sale, less than 5 years in terms of the project being underway.

Which is incredible. Xiaomi, very well-known, very well-trusted,

high-tech brand didn't have to move in to automotive. But they did, and now they've

got something to prove. They've had their wobbles in the last year. I'm not surprised to see

stories like this coming out, saying, hey, one of our cars done a quarter of a million kilometers,

94.5% battery state of health. Chinese buyers worry less about range anxiety these days. The car's got

a really long way, loads of places to charge them. They worry more about resale value as the

market matures, even long-term degradation. A car that's done a quarter of a million kilometers in

a year and a half, probably, since that car, if it was one of the early ones,

and yet keeps its pack capacity so high, gives Xiaomi more proof of concept.

Battery life is at the centre of EV price war, of course. Domestic rivals like BYD and Geely

are pushing cheaper chemistries and thinner margins all the time, while Neo touts swapping,

famously. Xiaomi, rather, leans into its consumer electronics playbook, talking about

durability, then driving volume through tight integration of its hardware and its software

and its online services as well. So, let's talk a little bit more about Xiaomi,

priming the next SU-7, the original one, the OG. The car arm that started at a pace,

it shipped more than 39,000 vehicles last month. The firm said yesterday it also wheeled out its

highly charismatic and still very much well-loved founder, Lei Jun, for another one of his

live streams. This will be the third or the fourth one recently, and I think we're on a

bit of a roll with these. So this time, the founder did a live stream from the laboratory

inside its Beijing factory. Most of the January deliveries last month came from the Y-U-7,

so that's the SU-V, not the flagship SU-7, saloon sedan, that made the firm's name in the first

place. Xiaomi's begun to wind down the production lines and switch to the next generation,

SU-7, a small stock of display and inventory cars remain for buyers keen to collect before the

Lunar New Year. Pre-launch testing for the new SU-7 has now finished. From February the 13th,

display cars will fan out to seven big cities. They'll first be shown off in Beijing, Shanghai,

Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Chengdu and Wuhan. The first batch will sit in mall showrooms,

to pull in passing traffic. Billboards will show the new SU-7, lit up in airports,

among them Beijing's Capital Terminal 3 and other high-profile places.

Lei also dwelt on the firm's test kit. Xiaomi now runs more than 100 of its own

laboratories across Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Wuhan. Engineers push cars through very harsh

testing. Heat, deep cold, altitude and hot, damp air. They'll go to the Kunlun Mountains for the

altitude stuff to Hainan for the hot, humid stuff. Proving grounds in various parts of China,

handle duty cycles. The test team has grown past 800 stuff. They're really leaning into this

durability message now that the brand is two years old in terms of automotive and

having to gain, and in some cases regain some of their buyer's trust. Right, we'll take a break,

stick around, back in a mo. One of you more confident with your finances this year? If you

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All right, welcome back to the podcast. Now, SAIC Motor started this year at speed.

In January, the Shanghai-based group shifted 327,000 vehicles up 24%.

And the mix mattered more than the headlines, really. The self-owned brands did all the heavy

lifting, selling 214,000 vehicles up 40% year on year, lifting their share of the group sales.

And SAIC passenger vehicles led, SAIC Maxus moved up as well, the joint venture with

GM Wooling also up 37%. Electric models added the big leg of growth. New energy vehicles were

up 40% year on year. SAIC passenger vehicles themselves, 28,000 new energy vehicles,

SAIC Maxus delivering 4,000 EVs in the month. That's up 25%. I am Motors. That's their

joint brand with Huawei. Remained small, but brisk. That was up 66%. Headed by models like the IM LS6.

We're getting more IM Motors over here, by the way, in Great Britain, badged as MGs. Well,

MG IMs, it's a bit of a fudge, but there's not much MG branding at all on those IM motors,

if any. And so, you've really got to know, however, they are sold here basically as you'd go

into an MG showroom and have a look at what they've got. The foreign push sped up for SAIC,

overseas sales in January, 105,000 overseas. That's up 52% compared to the same month

last year. SAIC is one of China's most outward looking car makers. Of course, MG,

as I mentioned, the group's main export badge, very well loved, certainly here, what with its British

heritage anyway, holding its run of form. In December, it ranked second by monthly sales in

Great Britain, doing very well over here as well. Now, NEO and the new ES8, or rather the third

version of the ES8, carried the brand last month in January. Third generation of the SUV

over 17,500 units, that's 65% of all NEO deliveries. On a narrower view of the NEO brand,

the ES8's grip is tighter still. It made up 85% of NEO brand deliveries, with little room for

anything else actually. That concentration shows the strength, but also the risk of NEO's push

in their very crowded premium EV market. The firm only unveiled the third gen ES8.

On the 20th of September last year at NEO Day, deliveries began the very next day. Since then,

demand has, well, it's surged. January's ES8 volume came in at nearly 40 times the same amount

as last year. This new ES8 is bigger, better equipped, better in every way than the one that

replaced, and significantly cheaper. But momentum is starting to ease with it.

Pictures also a little bit weaker at their Envo sub-brand, aimed at value conscious buyers.

Deliveries were down year on year, and down month on month as well. Firefly, the compact

brand, fared even worse actually. NEO is entering the year with really one-star model,

softening volumes elsewhere, and deepening price wars at home. But that ES8 is a very,

very good and very popular vehicle. And finally, Avatar plans to end to a segment,

the most of his rivals, run away from a wagon, the 06T. Purebev, battery-powered, estate car,

wagon, call it what you will. It's going to carry Huawei's latest LiDAR hardware as well.

The car extends Avatar's lineup beyond high-riding crossovers into a body style that once

defined family transport, but now survives, well, mainly in Europe. I've only had one estate car,

it was a Scott or Octavia estate, and we absolutely loved it. Everything fits in the back of that car.

Huawei's new LiDAR, built as the next-gen technology, sits at the heart of the Avatar 06T.

The 06T should sit in a crowded mid-market, not many estates up against it, but domestic

firms now treat software and autonomy as the big weapons. Huawei already supplies its chips, the OS,

cockpit software to several Chinese brands. By pairing a fresh sensor suite with a new clean

sheet EV wagon, Avatar and Huawei can show the full stack on a car that stands out in a sea of SUVs.

An estate layout offers a flat floor, very long roof, good for battery packaging,

good for boot space, good for aero, gives Avatar more room to hide the LiDAR units

without spoiling the profile of the car as well, and if they get it pricing of the 06T ride,

it'll test whether Chinese buyers, long fans of either saloons or more high-riding crossovers,

will pay for a sleek, low-slung estate with high-tech eyes. For one, I certainly would,

not that I can, where I live. That's your podcast for today.

Thanks for listening. I'll see you on the next one.

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CHINA: BYD Eyes 1500kW Charging, CATL’s Sodium Bet and Xpeng P7+ | 03 Feb 2026

About this episode

BYD

XPeng P7 Plus

kilowatt charging

CATL

X-Peng P7 Plus

megawatt charger

Dodge Charger

charging speed

dwell time

logistics hubs

DC fast charging

sodium-ion batteries

Chang'an

sodium cells

lithium-ion phosphate packs

Geely

Zika 007 GT

Zika 009

Zika 007

X-Pang P7 Plus

mid-size electric saloon segment

battery state of health

range anxiety

EV price war

Renault Wind

SAIC

new energy vehicles

IM LS6

MG

Nio ES8

NEO ES8

Avatar 06T

LiDAR

Skoda Octavia

Request an Explanation

Want to learn more?

Help improve this episode

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