In 2026, China's new energy vehicle sector ushered in a new round of competition, which began with BYD's launch of its flash charging battery. Subsequently, Chery announced that it would soon hold an event called "Battery Night". On the one hand, it is to keep up with BYD's pace, and on the other hand, to prove to the market that it also has new weapons. It is not difficult to speculate that in the future, several other large automobile groups may also follow in the footsteps of BYD and Chery, releasing their own new or leading technologies in the battery field. Let's set aside this speculation for today and continue to talk about the comparison between BYD's flash charging battery and NIO's battery swapping technology after BYD's launch. During this period, the comparison between the two has become the hottest topic in the industry. Of course, rationally speaking, both have their advantages, and neither is better than the other.

Today, let's look at it from a different perspective. In this era of technological explosion, is there a car that can achieve both the megawatt flash charging speed of BYD and compatibility with battery swapping? After all, only children have to choose; adults want it all. If that's the case, wouldn't it perfectly solve the pain points of both sides of the dispute? Actually, theoretically, it should be possible. Firstly, BYD's flash charging is essentially a revolution in the application of battery material technology. However, NIO's battery swapping has little to do with technology; it mainly involves the unification of battery specifications. Therefore, the reasons for the coexistence of the two are not conflicting. But then again, it is a huge engineering challenge to fit a battery into a battery swapping chassis structure while also withstanding a supercharging power of 1500kW. It's not impossible, but it requires extremely excellent structural innovation. Therefore, this may take time and investment, but the cost may be high. Now, let's boldly speculate: if the two are compatible and realized, and a certain car company launches a model that can both achieve superfast charging and convenient battery swapping, what would that be like?

When you commute in the city, you can enjoy the off-peak electricity price by slowly charging at home; on weekends when you need to take a long journey, you don't need to deliberately charge it overnight in advance. When passing by a fast-charging station, you can have a cup of coffee in 9 minutes and the battery is already fully charged, allowing you to continue on your way. And when you encounter the peak of the Spring Festival travel rush and all the charging piles in the highway service area are lined up, you no longer feel anxious. Because your car is compatible with the battery swapping mode, you can drive into the battery swapping station calmly without getting off the car. After 3 minutes, you drive out of the station area with a new fully charged battery, looking at the long queue of cars waiting to charge beside you, feeling secretly pleased. The best scenario is that several years later, battery technology upgrades, and semi-solid or even fully solid-state batteries are mass-produced. You don't need to sell your old car cheaply due to outdated battery technology. At the same time, because the vehicle supports the purchase of the battery separately from the vehicle, your car purchase threshold is directly reduced by 70,000 to 100,000 yuan, and you no longer have to worry about the sharp decline in the value retention rate caused by battery depreciation. It is this "unconventional" vehicle model that brings tangible benefits to consumers: ultimate convenience in efficiency and ultimate value retention in assets.

Since it sounds so wonderful, why isn't there such a car in reality? Are car manufacturers all fools? Of course not. The real obstacle lies not in engineering, but in whether such technology exists and whether it can be cost-reduced, including whether it can become a technological moat for car companies. So looking at BYD and NIO in reverse, why doesn't BYD do battery swapping and NIO do fast-charging batteries? Other car companies have failed in both fast-charging and battery swapping, all because of the above reasons. However, the topic of battery technology is grand and difficult for car companies to break through. After all, a few days ago, CATL quietly released its 2025 financial report: net profit attributable to shareholders was 72.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 42%, which is even more than the combined profits of all mainstream car companies in China. Everyone knows who a power battery supplier earns money from. Combined with the above conjecture, a terrifying question emerges: if there is such a hybrid model, which company is most likely to produce the battery that can withstand megawatt-level supercharging and also be compatible with battery swapping standards?

After all, CATL now possesses both superfast charging and battery swapping capabilities. What does this mean? CATL has the potential for integration. This is because it possesses the most comprehensive power battery technology reserves and has such a market position to promote the implementation of battery swapping standards. Therefore, if there is indeed a car in the future that can both flash charge and swap batteries, that battery will most likely bear the "CATL" logo and use the interface standards developed by CATL. This may send a chill down the spines of automakers, as CATL will upgrade from selling batteries to a composite model of selling both batteries and services. With every energy replenishment, CATL will make money, either through a share of battery fees and service fees, or through monthly battery rental fees. So, returning to the original question: Is there a car that can both flash charge and swap batteries? Technically, it is possible, and commercially, there is demand. However, if such a car does appear, it will depend on whether automakers can seize the initiative. Therefore, the competition between BYD and NIO over flash charging and battery swapping is ostensibly about which company has a better energy replenishment technology route, but in reality, it is an effort by automakers to regain the discourse power in the industry chain. In this marathon of new energy, automakers must not be in a passive position.