For years, the EV charging race has been measured in kilowatts: how fast a charger can deliver power and a battery can absorb it without overheating? Geely Auto Group, parent company of Volvo Cars and majority-owner of Polestar, thinks the next breakthrough is AI.
The automaker’s new Geely AI-powered EV fast charging, developed with Chinese AI startup StepFun, to coordinate the vehicle, battery, charger, grid and energy storage. The technology debuts with a fifth-generation Smart Charging Station and a next-generation Ultra Short Blade Battery, promising faster charging, smarter thermal management and improved battery longevity.
Four-Minute Charging
The numbers are impressive. Geely says batteries in the Lynk & Co 10 and Zeekr 001 went from 10% to 70% in 4 minutes, 30 seconds during real-world testing. Reaching 97% took 8 minutes, 40 seconds. That puts Geely in competition with BYD’s second-generation Blade Battery and Flash Charging technology, which the company says can deliver comparable charging gains in five and nine minutes, respectively.
But Geely’s pitch isn’t simply about dumping more electricity into the battery.
More Than A Number
Geely is also rolling out a new smart charging station capable of delivering up to 2,250 kilowatts per charging gun, according to the company. The more consequential innovation may be what happens behind the headline number: its AI system continuously manages charging power to prevent battery temperatures from climbing too high, allowing the hardware to push harder without treating heat as an afterthought.
Yes, About The Battery Temperature Problem
Ultra-fast charging creates one obvious problem: heat. Geely says PowerMind can predict battery temperatures up to 30 seconds ahead and adjust charging power accordingly, keeping average temperatures at 55°C and peaks below 65°C. A five-point liquid-cooling system manages heat across the charging station, cable, port and battery pack.
Geely is also using micro-pulse currents to counter battery degradation, claiming the technology can extend battery life by up to 20% when combined with AI-controlled charging. A low-rate home-charging strategy is designed to further mitigate degradation from repeated fast charging.
The Upshot
The larger story is whether an automaker can repeatedly deliver this type of performance without excessive heat, accelerated battery degradation or expensive hardware constraints.
Geely’s answer is to use AI to decide not simply how much power a battery can receive, but how much it should receive at any given moment.
For an industry that has spent years chasing bigger batteries and more powerful chargers, charging speed is becoming a strategic selling point. The goal is to make owning an EV feel less like managing a battery and more like refueling a conventional car. The key to that may be AI-powered EV fast charging. That’s when the internal combustion engine’s days are numbered.
