Who Is More Aggressive?
Following CATL and BYD's announcements of massive investments in building battery swap stations and ultra-fast charging stations, the "10,000-station" scale energy replenishment fleet has welcomed a new player.
Over a month ago, Sunwoda announced its plan to build 10,000 megawatt flash charging stations by the end of 2027. Replenishing NEVs as quickly as refueling is transitioning from a technical vision to reality.
Let's first look at a set of coordinates. By the end of 2025, the total number of gas stations nationwide was approximately 110,000, and the national ownership of fuel vehicles was about 320 million; the ownership of NEVs was approximately 43.97 million, with over 20 million charging piles and about 320,000 charging stations.
Although the number of charging piles has comprehensively surpassed that of gas stations, vehicle owners' range anxiety regarding energy replenishment persists. The issue is that the quantity of charging infrastructure does not equal effective supply.
A large number of private charging piles are difficult to serve public travel, and the public charging network also faces issues such as uneven power distribution, queuing in popular areas, and low utilization rates at some stations.
In the past, charging stations were the main battleground for operators, but with the popularization of 5C and above vehicle models, megawatt-level charging piles have begun to become a new battleground for battery manufacturers.
Taking BYD, which is the most aggressive in deploying ultra-fast charging models, as a reference, it recently replied on an investor interaction platform that order demand for flash-charging models is strong, and the second-generation Blade Battery is still in the capacity ramp-up phase.
During the same period, BYD announced the completion of 2,000 highway flash charging stations, covering nearly one-third of highway service areas nationwide.
An obvious change is that while traditional charging operators are also advancing megawatt ultra-fast charging construction, battery manufacturers are promoting the implementation of megawatt ultra-fast charging networks with a more aggressive posture.
This is because the different positions they hold in the industrial chain determine that their respective deployment logics are also different.
Misalignment of Capability Boundaries
In the past, charging operators relied on linear extrapolation of the "increasing NEV penetration rate" to build stations, which easily led to overestimating early utilization rates, resulting in a large number of abandoned "zombie" piles.
Operators excel at site selection, construction, operation and maintenance, and membership operations, but they cannot master cell C-rate and lifespan data, vehicle thermal management and high-voltage platform strategies, or the new vehicle release pace of automakers.
Secondly, operators may not be able to wait, nor can they justify the economics. Megawatt flash charging is valuable for ordinary passenger vehicles, but the premise is that 5C and above models are sufficiently popularized, while the cost of megawatt piles and grid transformation is extremely high.
This leads to an unequal situation between the vehicle and charging ends.
Relevant data shows that in 2025, domestic sales of mid-to-high-end NEV models equipped with 5C and above high C-rate fast charging were approximately 3 million units; in the first half of 2026, the penetration rate of 5C and above models was over 15%.
On the other hand, charging piles capable of matching 5C and above charging speeds generally have a power of 400-600kW, and the charging time is generally 10-15 minutes.
Pile manufacturers staying at 400-600kW are more locked in by the grid and costs.
The cost of a 600kW pile is still within an acceptable range, but a megawatt-level pile means transformer expansion, dedicated line access, and even energy storage configuration—a single station investment could multiply several times. Since operators rely on service fees to recover costs, the rational choice is to stay in the range where the experience is just sufficient.
Therefore, the essence of pile manufacturers' business is power distribution, not batteries.
Instead, it is battery enterprises that have initiated the "more fiercely competitive" charging and energy replenishment times. They can push up the cell C-rate through material systems (fast-charging graphite, LFP modification, electrolyte formulations). With the emergence of 6C and 7C cells, a 5-minute charge finally has a physical foundation.
The "pile" naturally becomes an important carrier to match the 5-minute charging experience. Battery enterprises have thus become the main players in this round of megawatt ultra-fast charging competition.
Their goal is to close the loop on the ultra-fast charging experience of under 5 minutes, not just stopping at the battery end, but personally bridging the charging pile end.
Is the War at the Energy Replenishment End Essentially an Extension of the Cell?
In the past, battery manufacturers' fast-charging narrative focused on the product end: higher nickel content, thinner separators, optimized electrolytes, improved thermal management, CTP/CTB structures, and 800V/1000V high-voltage platforms.
However, when 4C and above models began to scale up, the industry quickly realized that fast-charging competitiveness belongs not only to the cell chemistry system but also depends on whether users can use fast charging frequently, cheaply, and safely in their daily lives.
Essentially, the energy replenishment end is a crucial territory for battery enterprises to deploy fast-charging technology.
If there are too few ultra-fast charging stations, consumers will not dare to buy 5C models; if they buy a 5C car but cannot find a stable megawatt pile, product reputation will backlash against the battery brand. Thus, energy replenishment infrastructure becomes the battery's second sales terminal, second testing ground, and second warranty system.
Moreover, battery manufacturers entering the field to deploy ultra-fast charging stations have deeper ecological motivations.
First, linking with OEMs. Sunwoda's megawatt flash charging stations adopt an industry-wide open ecosystem, setting no brand barriers, compatible with the vast majority of NEV brands on the market, and not limited to models equipped with Sunwoda's own batteries.
Second, expanding business boundaries. Battery enterprises such as BYD, CATL, and Sunwoda are already multi-domain players in power batteries and energy storage. Megawatt ultra-fast charging construction inevitably requires energy storage configuration. In the future, they can engage in peak-valley arbitrage, demand management, vehicle-to-grid (V2G) interaction, virtual power plants, and ancillary services. Battery manufacturers have the opportunity to transition from "selling cells" to "selling energy assets".
Third, mastering the data closed loop. Information such as charging loop temperature, internal resistance, lithium plating risk, SOC/SOH estimation, and lifespan degradation from every megawatt charge—these data, in turn, guide the next generation of cells and BMS algorithms.
Therefore, battery manufacturers entering the field to deploy ultra-fast charging stations is not only to match current fast-charging models but also to establish a future-oriented technology verification and energy service system.
A Scale of 10,000 Stations Is Not a Natural Moat
A large number of low-utilization charging piles have already shown that the competition in energy replenishment infrastructure is not a mere scale race.
In the past, the charging industry could tolerate "inconsistent experiences" because energy replenishment took a long time and user expectations were low; megawatt flash charging has raised user expectations to the minute level, making the fault tolerance rate even lower.
If battery manufacturers use a scale of 10,000 stations as a strategic positioning gimmick, low-utilization megawatt ultra-fast charging stations will be more dangerous than low-utilization slow charging stations, because they occupy scarce power capacity and capital without generating matching cash flow.
At this stage, the main task for battery manufacturers may be the penetration of ultra-fast charging batteries. If the penetration of ultra-fast charging models falls short of expectations, the stations will sit idle. What is most urgent for BYD, CATL, Sunwoda, and others right now is model penetration rate, battery consistency, station availability, and brand trust.
Additionally, if cell lifespan degrades beyond expectations under real high-frequency operating conditions, warranty and reputation will suffer a backlash. Conversely, if battery manufacturers can turn every megawatt charge into lifespan data, thermal management data, grid data, and user behavior data, the megawatt ultra-fast charging network will be more than just a marketing asset; it will be a crucial database for the performance advancement of ultra-fast charging batteries.
The next stage is to achieve synergy between orderly charging and energy storage. Megawatt charging cannot be separated from power distribution capacity expansion, proportion of green electricity, peak-valley price difference, demand charges, and vehicle-to-grid interaction policies. Whoever can integrate the megawatt ultra-fast charging network can transform energy replenishment from a cost center into an energy asset.
From a longer industrial cycle perspective, what is truly worth attention regarding megawatt ultra-fast charging is not just the charging speed, but how it may drive changes in the relationship among power batteries, charging infrastructure, and the power system.
In the past, battery manufacturers mainly provided products to OEMs, charging operators were responsible for building and operating infrastructure, and the grid provided power supply. Each party engaged in competition and cooperation around their respective business boundaries.
However, as charging power continues to increase, this division of labor is facing new challenges.
The instantaneous load brought by high-power charging may cause some stations to face issues such as insufficient power distribution capacity and high expansion costs. Especially in scenarios like highway service areas and urban transportation hubs, large-scale centralized energy replenishment for vehicles may further amplify local power demand.
This means that future megawatt ultra-fast charging stations cannot only consider the charging equipment itself but also need to incorporate grid connection, energy storage configuration, intelligent scheduling, and energy costs into overall planning.
Therefore, for battery enterprises, the real challenge is whether they can transform their cell technology advantages into efficiency advantages for the entire energy replenishment system.
In the future, the focus of industry competition may no longer be who can achieve higher charging power or build more stations, but who can form a stable synergy among fast-charging models, charging networks, energy storage systems, and power resources.