China’s battery giant has unveiled a new electric vehicle pack that promises a driving lifetime once reserved for diesel trucks and a charging stop closer to a coffee break than an overnight stay. The 5C battery is pitched as capable of a 1.5-million-mile service life while recharging in about 12 minutes, a combination that directly targets the two biggest anxieties around EVs: range degradation and time spent at the plug. If those claims hold up in real-world fleets, the economics of owning and operating an electric car, taxi, or delivery van could shift faster than many policymakers or competitors expected.
Instead of chasing ever larger battery packs, the company is betting that ultra-fast charging without rapid aging will matter more for drivers who rack up serious mileage. The promise is simple but disruptive: batteries that last as long as the vehicle itself, paired with refueling times that start to resemble a gasoline stop, could redraw the map for charging infrastructure, resale values, and even the balance between batteries and hydrogen in heavy transport.
Inside CATL’s 5C battery: speed without “fast aging”
The core of the announcement is a 5C battery that the manufacturer says can handle repeated ultra-fast charging while keeping most of its usable capacity. In battery jargon, 5C means a pack can theoretically be fully charged in one-fifth of an hour, or about 12 minutes, a definition that aligns with how enthusiasts describe C rates in discussions of new EVs such as the Xpeng P7+ on forums where C refers to the charging multiplier of the battery. What makes this pack notable is not just the headline speed but the claim that Testing shows the 5C battery retains 80% capacity after thousands of fast charge cycles, even when pushed in extreme heat, a result the company frames as “fast charging without fast aging.” That 80% threshold is widely used in the industry as the point where drivers begin to notice a meaningful loss of range, so holding that line after heavy use would be a significant engineering feat.
The company has also reworked the electronics that sit on top of the cells to keep that performance stable. Its battery monitoring system, or BMS, has been enhanced so it can direct coolant to any specific area of the pack that is heating up, rather than cooling everything uniformly, a targeted approach described in detail in coverage of the upgraded BMS. That kind of thermal micromanagement is essential at 5C, where even small hot spots can accelerate degradation or trigger safety systems that slow charging. By combining cell chemistry tuned for high current with a smarter BMS and aggressive cooling, the company is effectively arguing that the old trade-off between speed and longevity is no longer inevitable.
From million-mile warranties to 1.5-million-mile ambitions
This new pack does not appear out of nowhere; it builds on a steady escalation in how long EV batteries are expected to last. Earlier designs from the same manufacturer were already warranted to last for a million miles or 15 years, a benchmark that was laid out when CATL warrants
In parallel, the company has been developing a 1.5-million-kilometer battery, roughly 932,000 miles, based on its patented M3P chemistry, with reports noting that the 1.5-million-kilometer battery is now a reality and crediting Contemporary Amperex Tec for bringing that chemistry to market. When you line up those milestones, the 1.5-million-mile figure attached to the new 5C pack looks less like a moonshot and more like the next logical step in a long-term strategy to stretch battery lifespans far beyond what early EV buyers experienced. For fleet operators who cycle vehicles aggressively, that kind of durability can be the difference between swapping packs midlife and running the same battery until the chassis itself is ready for retirement.
Heavy-use vehicles and “gas-like” charging
The company is explicit about who it is targeting first with this technology: heavy-use vehicles that spend much of their day on the road and cannot afford long charging stops. In social media posts, the 5C battery is described as Designed for heavy-use vehicles and aiming to deliver gas-like charging speeds without rapid battery degradation, with the same material highlighting the combination of 12-minute charging and 1.5 million service life as the core value proposition for taxis, ride-hailing fleets, and commercial vans that live or die on uptime. That positioning is reinforced in a post that frames the pack as Designed for duty cycles where vehicles might fast charge multiple times per day.
For drivers, the key comparison is not to other EVs but to the familiar rhythm of filling a gasoline tank. Analysts have long argued that getting charging times down to roughly the same time as it takes to refuel a gasoline-powered car would remove a major obstacle to wider EV adoption, a point made explicitly in commentary that notes that by getting the charging time down to roughly the same time as it takes to refuel a gasoline-powered car, the company addresses a major obstacle to wider EV adoption and credits CATL with pushing toward that tipping point. A 12-minute stop is still longer than a quick gas fill, but it is close enough that, paired with predictable availability of high-power chargers, it could make EVs viable for long-distance travelers and commercial fleets that currently see charging downtime as a deal-breaker.
China’s broader battery arms race: Geely, LFP and long life
The 5C pack also lands in the middle of a broader Chinese race to stretch battery life and safety, particularly using lithium iron phosphate chemistries. Geely, for example, has introduced a 2024 Short Blade Battery (LFP) that it describes as fire-safe and distinct from other blade-style packs, with social media posts emphasizing that the 2024 Short Blade Battery (LFP) from Geely, also called Geely’s Short Blade, is not to be confused with other designs and highlighting its structural advantages in crash safety and packaging, as detailed in discussions of the Short Blade Battery. That focus on LFP reflects a trade-off many Chinese manufacturers are willing to make: slightly lower energy density in exchange for longer cycle life, lower cost, and better thermal stability.
Geely has gone further by touting a new LFP battery technology with a 50-year service life and 3,500 charge cycles, pitched as a way to significantly boost the resale value of used electric vehicles by ensuring the pack remains healthy long after the first owner is done with the car. Reporting on this development notes that the groundbreaking LFP battery technology is aimed at significantly boosting the resale value of used electric vehicles and that the Chinese giant Geely has unveiled a pack that can repeatedly charge from 10% to 80% capacity while maintaining performance, framing it as a major step for LFP in mainstream cars. When you place Geely’s 50-year claim alongside CATL’s 1.5-million-mile ambitions, it becomes clear that Chinese manufacturers are not just competing on range or price, they are trying to redefine what “end of life” even means for an EV battery.
Market power, hydrogen rivalry and what comes next
All of this is happening with a company that already dominates the global EV battery market. Years before the 5C pack, observers were already describing how CATL’s empire now seems insurmountable, noting that it is the largest electric vehicle battery maker in the world and that it has built a powerful set of alliances with carmakers across multiple continents, a position summarized in profiles that underline how CATL’s empire gives it leverage over pricing and technology roadmaps. When a player with that kind of scale introduces a battery that promises both ultra-fast charging and million-mile-plus life, it is not just a technical milestone, it is a signal to automakers and rivals about where the industry is heading.
More from Morning Overview