The shape behind the name
BYD calls this battery cell format the Blade Battery. The company describes the cell itself as having a longer, flatter design than earlier battery cells. It uses lithium iron phosphate as its chemistry, a formula that contains no nickel and no cobalt, the metals common in the ternary lithium cells many other electric cars used at the time. No source read for this article states the cell exact measurements in millimeters, so this article describes the shape only in words, long, thin and flat.
A steel nail punctured 3 battery types
At its March 2020 launch event, BYD ran a nail penetration test, pushing a steel nail through a battery cell to imitate a severe short circuit inside it, and compared 3 cell types side by side. Jiemian News, an independent outlet that reported on the event, recorded a ternary lithium cell reaching a surface temperature of 500 degrees Celsius after the nail went through it, a conventional block shaped iron phosphate cell reaching 200 to 400 degrees, and the Blade cell staying at 30 to 60 degrees with no flames or smoke. BYD own account of the same test states the same 30 to 60 degree figure for its cell. The Blade cell also went through crushing, bending, an oven heated to 300 degrees Celsius, and a 260% overload, BYD says, with no fire or explosion in any of the 4 tests.
This is 1 comparison test at BYD own March 2020 launch event, reported independently by Jiemian News, not an industry wide average. The ternary lithium figure is a single reported value, not a stated range, entered as a fixed point rather than a true low and high.
Show the numbers
| Ternary lithium, NMC | 500 degrees Celsius |
| Conventional block shaped iron phosphate | 200 to 400 degrees Celsius |
| Blade cell, iron phosphate | 30 to 60 degrees Celsius |
Why the long, flat shape stays cooler
Ouyang Minggao, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and head of the expert group for the national New Energy Vehicle programme, is reported as explaining the result has 2 causes. The long, flat shape gives the cell a larger surface area to shed heat. When punctured, the electrical short circuit path inside a long cell is longer than inside a block shaped one, and a longer path generates less heat. Less heat made and more heat lost meant a smaller temperature rise. Battery University, an independent battery engineering reference site, confirms the general version of this problem, that an ordinary flat, prismatic cell is normally less efficient at shedding heat than a cylindrical one, the disadvantage the Blade shape is built to overcome.
The cell kept improving
BYD says a second generation Blade cell, launched in March 2026, raises energy density, how much energy a cell stores for its size, by 5% over the first generation. The company says the new cell charges from 10% to 70% of its capacity in 5 minutes and reaches 97% in 9 minutes. After being frozen for 24 hours at minus 30 degrees Celsius, BYD says a charge from 20% to 97% takes only 3 minutes longer than at room temperature, a total of 12 minutes by MAOWCE arithmetic on those 2 BYD figures. BYD also says the second generation cell passed a nail penetration test while being fast charged, after 500 fast charging cycles, with no smoke or open flame, though this claim has no independent source in this article.
BYD own stated results for the cell launched March 2026, not independently measured. The 12 minute figure for charging after being frozen is MAOWCE arithmetic, adding BYD stated 3 minute penalty to the 9 minute room temperature figure, both from source 2.
Show the numbers
| Room temperature 10% to 70% | 5 |
| Room temperature 10% to 97% | 9 |
| Frozen 24 hours 20% to 97% | 12 |