Chery is the latest Chinese automaker to announce a megawatt-class charging system. At its Global Innovation Conference 2026 in Wuhu (reported by Bernama on 21 October 2026), the company showed a charger it calls Volt-dragon. Chery says it peaks at 1.44 MW, adds 500 km of range in five minutes and takes a battery from 10% to 97% in 6 minutes 50 seconds, according to CarNewsChina and Electrek. Electrek converts the range figure to about 311 miles.

Chery also set a deployment target. It wants more than 20,000 vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capable charging stations worldwide by 2029. A company statement carried by Bernama says that total includes markets where grid infrastructure is still developing.

Read every number in this article as a manufacturer claim. Chery has not said which vehicle or battery produced the 500 km figure. Nobody has published an independent test. CarNewsChina reports that Chery has not disclosed how the system performs in hot or cold weather. ChargerFeed could not read a Chery-hosted press page, so the company's own statement is cited here as Bernama reported it.

The headline numbers, and what sits behind them

CarNewsChina's account of the launch gives these specifications:

  • Peak power: 1.44 MW.
  • Range added: 500 km in five minutes. Chery cites eight minutes "in conservative scenarios."
  • 10–97% charge: 6 minutes 50 seconds.
  • Power electronics: silicon carbide (SiC), with a claimed 96.5% grid-to-plug efficiency.
  • Cooling: immersion liquid cooling.
  • Handling: a plug-and-cable assembly weighing 2 kg, and operating noise under 50 dBA.
  • Vehicle side: compatible vehicles are expected to use 800V or 1000V-plus platforms.
  • Planned features: robotic-arm automated charging and V2G.

Electrek adds that Chery's CheryMind AI system adjusts charging power according to battery temperature. CarNewsChina, by contrast, says Chery has not disclosed how CheryMind works with the charging network, so that detail is unconfirmed.

Some simple arithmetic puts the claim in context. If the charger ran at its full 1.44 MW for the entire five minutes, it would deliver at most 120 kWh. Real sessions rarely hold peak power that long, because charge rates usually fall as the battery fills. That is why the vehicle matters. The "conservative" figure of eight minutes for the same 500 km is three minutes longer than the headline five, so the result may depend on conditions. Chery has not published the charging curve, the battery size or the test conditions that would let anyone check the claim.

How it stacks up against China's other megawatt chargers

Chery is entering a crowded field. CarNewsChina lists the 10–97% times (10–98% for CATL) that rivals have claimed for their own systems. These figures, too, come from the companies and not from a common independent test:

  • CATL third-generation Shenxing: 6 min 27 s (10–98%)
  • Chery Volt-dragon: 6 min 50 s
  • Hongqi: 8 min 03 s
  • Geely: 8 min 42 s
  • BYD Blade 2.0: about 9 min

On this list Chery comes second, behind CATL. Electrek compares peak power instead: BYD's system is rated at 1.5 MW and Geely's at 2.2 MW, so Chery's 1.44 MW is not the highest. Peak power and the time for a full 10–97% charge measure different things. A charger with a lower peak can still finish sooner if it holds high power for longer.

The bigger gap is deployment. CarNewsChina reports that BYD reached 10,000 Flash charging stations in late August and is targeting 20,000 by the end of 2026. Electrek also puts BYD's installed base at 10,000. Chery has not reported any operating Volt-dragon stations.

What is announced, what is planned, and what is operating

The sources describe Chery's network in terms of plans, not open sites:

  • Near term (planned): CarNewsChina reports 100 Volt-dragon stations in 10 Chinese cities, with more expansion plans to come before the end of 2026. Electrek describes this as 100 chargers in 10 cities "soon" and says Chery has only just started installing chargers. Neither source gives a date or names the cities, and the two outlets differ on whether the 100 are chargers or stations.
  • 2029 (target): more than 20,000 V2G-capable stations worldwide. CarNewsChina, Bernama and Italian outlet Motorbox all report this target.
  • Operating: as of 24 October 2026, none of the sources reports a public Volt-dragon station open to drivers.
  • Funding: none of the sources says how the network will be paid for, who will run it or what charging will cost.

The wording of the 2029 target differs by outlet. CarNewsChina calls them "Volt-dragon V2G-capable stations," while the Chery statement reported by Bernama describes "V2G charging stations" and does not mention the 1.44 MW figure. The sources do not say how many of the 20,000 sites, if any, will have megawatt-class hardware.

The V2G and microgrid angle

The Chery statement quoted by Bernama emphasizes grid integration more than charging speed. At the conference, Chery showed a V2G demonstration station that combines solar generation, battery storage and megawatt-level charging in a local microgrid, with two-way power flow so that electric vehicles can feed electricity back to the grid during peak demand. Motorbox confirms that both the Volt-dragon system and the V2G demonstration station were presented in Wuhu.

Chery also cites an example, according to Bernama: a solar-plus-storage microgrid at an electric heavy-truck facility in Spain that replaced diesel generators. The statement does not give the site's capacity or its operating dates, and it does not say who built it.

For site hosts, the combination of on-site storage and solar is, in principle, one way to reduce the instantaneous power drawn from the utility compared with a bare 1.44 MW connection, though the sources do not say this. Chery has not published the battery capacity or the grid-connection size of the demonstration station. Any site considering megawatt-class equipment would need its own utility study, and the electrical work belongs to licensed electricians following the manufacturer's instructions.

The Bernama report also places the charging work inside Chery's wider technology push. It mentions the CheryMind AI platform, Ziwei chips, and an L4 robotaxi that works alongside autonomous charging robots. That is consistent with the robotic-arm charging which CarNewsChina says is planned for Volt-dragon.

What It Means for Drivers

In China: drivers will need a compatible vehicle and a nearby station. CarNewsChina says supported vehicles are expected to be built on 800V or 1000V-plus platforms, but Chery has not said which models will support the full rate. It also has not named the 10 cities for the first 100 sites, given an opening date or published prices. Until those details appear, nobody can say when a Chery owner will first plug into a Volt-dragon charger or what they will pay.

In Spain and other markets: the 2029 target is global, and Chery cites a Spanish microgrid as an example of its energy approach. However, none of the sources names a country, besides China, where Volt-dragon chargers are scheduled to open.

In the United States: nothing changes yet. Electrek notes that the fastest public chargers in the US run at around 400 kW, and that 750 kW units may arrive next year. None of the sources mentions plans to bring Volt-dragon to North America.

What to watch:

  • Named vehicle models that support the full rate.
  • A published charging curve.
  • Cold-weather and hot-weather results.
  • The first city to get an operating station.
  • Third-party test data.

Until those details are published, 500 km in five minutes is a stated target, not a verified result.

Sources