Danny Weber
00:20 04-11-2025
FAW Hongqi's PP40 hybrid battery enters mass production, delivering sub-14-minute charging, multilayer safety, thermal control, and predictive monitoring.
FAW Hongqi has officially announced that the PP40 hybrid battery, developed within the Honghu Hybrid platform, has entered mass production. The company says the new technology brings charging down to under 14 minutes, a timeline it presents as comparable to a gasoline stop.
Beyond speed, the PP40 leans heavily on safety. The pack features a multilayer protection system: a rigid–elastic composite barrier with multidimensional isolation and an IP68+ ingress protection rating. The battery module has been reworked around crash resilience—reinforced frames and optimized load paths are designed to withstand impacts and compression, reportedly doubling the margin over national safety standards. Additional measures include an insulating coating on metal components and a fire-resistant filler intended to prevent ignition even under extreme conditions.
To manage heat, the battery uses dual thermal insulation that combines a composite frame material with microporous foamed polypropylene. Rapid heat removal is handled by directed cooling, and the design maintains stability if a single cell fails, preventing thermal spread and the risk of fire.
The PP40 also introduces predictive monitoring that tracks operating parameters in real time and flags potential faults before they escalate into hazards.
The headline advance is charging speed. Hongqi’s engineers applied an isotropic anode material, refined the electrode coating process, and adopted a low-viscosity superconducting electrolyte. Together, these choices aim to maximize charge transfer efficiency and bring charging down to 14 minutes at normal temperature, narrowing the convenience gap with gasoline cars.
If this performance carries over from the spec sheet to daily use, the sub-14-minute figure would chip away at one of the biggest psychological hurdles for EVs. The pronounced focus on layered safety also reads as a direct nod to consumer expectations around reliability and thermal control.
Hongqi has not specified which vehicles will be first to receive the PP40, saying only that more details will follow soon.