https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/09/us-being-left-behind-in-ev-charging-speeds-as-china-goes-sub-5-min-to-70/

Charging your electric car is getting faster and faster.

An LFP as well. Not solid state. The advances are coming thick and fast.

Five to ten minutes to recharge an EV is about the same amount of time as filling up with gasoline or diesel fuel.

Edited 17 hours ago17 hr by stans

Now we're talking. It won't be long before I seriously look into trading in my ICE truck for an electric one. Now, if utility prices keep rising because of data centers, then the economics won't be quite as good, but still better than gasoline.

With all the coal power plants China is building, about one every week or two, they will have plenty of electricity to not only power all those EVs, but to manufacture them in huge numbers as well. Because China's policy is to outproduce everyone else to the point where they must export their excess supply, they'll sell that surplus supply of EVs, likely at a loss which is known as "dumping", to Europe and Canada, harming those nations' domestic producers. The U.S. has already banned their cars, and I would advise other nations to do the same.

Dave

4 hours ago, dave2013 said:

With all the coal power plants China is building, about one every week or two, they will have plenty of electricity to not only power all those EVs, but to manufacture them in huge numbers as well.

"How the Plants Are Used: Many of these new coal plants operate under long-term contracts, but because of the vast buildout of clean energy, overall capacity factors (how often the plants run at maximum power) have trended lower, with plants sometimes functioning as grid backup rather than running constantly"

"China’s renewable energy sector is growing at an unprecedented, record-shattering scale, making it the undisputed global leader in clean energy investment and deployment. In fact, China installs more solar panels and wind turbines than the rest of the world combined"

🌟 Milestones and Recent Data

• Solar Overtakes Coal: In July 2026, China achieved a massive historical milestone when installed solar capacity officially surpassed coal capacity for the first time. Installed solar hit roughly 1,286 gigawatts (GW), edging past coal's 1,285 GW.

• The 2025 Massive Boom: According to China's National Energy Administration, China added a record-shattering 430 GW of new wind and solar capacity in 2025 alone. To put that in perspective, the total renewable energy generated exceeded the entire annual power consumption of the European Union.

• Half of the Grid: By mid-2026, wind and solar combined made up roughly 48.5% of China's total installed power capacity. When adding hydropower and nuclear, non-fossil fuel sources make up well over half of China's total electricity capacity"

Edited 12 hours ago12 hr by martin-w

4 hours ago, dave2013 said:

they'll sell that surplus supply of EVs, likely at a loss which is known as "dumping", to Europe and Canada, harming those nations' domestic producers. The U.S. has already banned their cars, and I would advise other nations to do the same.

Dave

No, Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) sold in Europe and Canada are generally not being sold at a net financial loss per vehicle. In fact, because Chinese automakers face intense, low-margin price wars domestically, they typically mark up their prices significantly when selling overseas, often making their highest profit margins on exports.

I went car shopping with my father in law in Chongqing early last year and I have to say that it's made the offerings we have in the US look completely uncompetitive. And it's not just electric sedans - every single category of car from hatchbacks to wagons to SUVs and trucks felt like it was leaps and bounds better than anything we have available here. On top of that, the fit and finish of even cheaper cars in China feels on par with if not better than the luxury cars we have here. There are cars available for $30,000usd equivalent in China that are better than anything you can buy in the US for under $100,000. Some of them (Xiaomi, Li, and Nio especially) genuinely felt like nicer cars than you can buy for any price in the US. It's not surprising we've de-facto banned them here because their products put the slop US automakers put out to shame.

You don't have to take my word for it either - the CEO of Ford is driving a Xiaomi Su7 as his personal car.

Edited 11 hours ago11 hr by Stavros

1 hour ago, Stavros said:

It's not surprising we've de-facto banned them here because their products put the slop US automakers put out to shame.

I've owned several American cars and trucks and they've all been pretty high quality and reliable. Moreover, many foreign autos are actually made in a U.S. factory. Yes, some of the parts are made in other countries, but that's pretty much the case with most manufactured products nowadays.

China, which is governed by the CCP(Chinese Communist Party) is a predatory regime which has longstanding plans to dominate manufacturing and use this as leverage to make itself indispensable and all-powerful. They've just about achieved this goal, but now that the U.S. is coming out of its 30-year stupor and encouraging domestic manufacturing again, their plans may be thwarted.

Things cost less in China because the average person makes a lot less money and has a much lower standard of living than the average person in the U.S and other peer nations.

Dave

2 hours ago, martin-w said:

No, Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) sold in Europe and Canada are generally not being sold at a net financial loss per vehicle. In fact, because Chinese automakers face intense, low-margin price wars domestically, they typically mark up their prices significantly when selling overseas, often making their highest profit margins on exports.

Martin, please stop posting AI-generated slop.

Do your own research.

Dave

4 hours ago, dave2013 said:

I've owned several American cars and trucks and they've all been pretty high quality and reliable. Moreover, many foreign autos are actually made in a U.S. factory. Yes, some of the parts are made in other countries, but that's pretty much the case with most manufactured products nowadays.

China, which is governed by the CCP(Chinese Communist Party) is a predatory regime which has longstanding plans to dominate manufacturing and use this as leverage to make itself indispensable and all-powerful. They've just about achieved this goal, but now that the U.S. is coming out of its 30-year stupor and encouraging domestic manufacturing again, their plans may be thwarted.

Things cost less in China because the average person makes a lot less money and has a much lower standard of living than the average person in the U.S and other peer nations.

Dave

Yeah, those American cars you love so much are mostly made in Mexico these days where labor is actually cheaper than China. Yet the products are still more expensive and worse quality. I've rented enough Chevy Trailblazers from Avis to know that I'd rather drive literally anything else on the lot.

Chinese manufacturing is not cheap because of labor costs and hasn't been for over a decade now. the Xiaomi Su7 is literally built in a dark factory that has essentially 0 workers. The reason China dominates manufacturing is because they have spent the last 50 years investing in the infrastructure and fostering an extremely competitive domestic manufacturing market where starting a new company is easy and established manufacturing companies are not protected against these startups.

Just as an example, there 22 independent significant auto manufacturers in China, alongside another 50 or so smaller makers and startups. This doesn't include foreign joint ventures or marques owned by a single brand - that is 75 independent automakers all competing with each other, forcing innovation and pricing competition. The US has 3 heavily protected automakers alongside 2 startups - Tesla and Rivian - who have faced enormous hurdles in building their companies. (Tesla, by the way, only exists because of a major government loan in the 2010s. Quite a successful one at that! Maybe we should try that more?)

But what do I know, I just have a degree in East Asian Studies and Chinese language and an International Business minor; alongside lived experience in China. I'd love to hear about the research you've been doing - have you visited factories in china? Analyzed labor costs? Attempted to source manufacturing contracts in America vs. China? Would love to hear the data backing up your claims!

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by Stavros