Braving the frigid cold of the Chinese winter last December, William Li, chief executive of Chinese automaker NIO, drove for 14 hours from Shanghai to the southern eastern city of Xiamen, allowing viewers to watch him via a livestream on the company’s app.

His aim? To demonstrate that the latest version of the company’s ET7 sedan model could complete the 1,000 kilometer journey using a semi-solid-state battery pack — a new technology for NIO that its peers in China and around the world are racing to develop.

“Today’s test is to show everyone that where combustion cars can go, so can electric vehicles,” Li said: Indeed, the car completed the challenge with a battery level of 3 percent remaining. NIO, which allows users to swap batteries, has since made the new semi-solid pack available for renting, starting this month. 

With the ability to deliver 150 kilowatts per hour, the semi-solid battery pack NIO is using has the highest capacity and energy density among mass-produced electric vehicle batteries in the Chinese market right now. Its maker, Beijing WeLion New Energy Technology, is already expanding its facilities to ramp up production. 

The Chinese government is now lending it and others a hand. In January, Beijing formed a consortium of industry heavyweights, academics and government officials with the aim of building a supply chain for solid-state batteries by 2030.

In the latest development, the government has set up a $828 million fund to support six companies, including Beijing WeLion, in developing solid-state batteries — with research and development funding available only on the condition that they work together, Chinese media outlet Caixin reported earlier this month. Others involved are battery giant CATL, automakers Geely and BYD, plus state-owned firms SAIC Motor and China FAW Group. 

…solid-state batteries really require a brand new manufacturing process. Even if a company figured it out, there’s huge inertia to dump all the infrastructure it spent billions of dollars building and start anew.

Ping Liu, director of the Sustainable Power and Energy Center at University of California San Diego

The efforts highlight China’s eagerness to capitalize on the latest developments in electric vehicle batteries — and its fear that other countries could leapfrog its position as a global leader in the industry, which up to now has relied on its companies’ expertise in producing lithium ion-based batteries. 

“With any emerging technology, whoever can produce it first takes the dominant position in the supply value chain,” says Rory McNulty, a senior analyst from the data provider Benchmark Minerals Intelligence. “In a way, China sees solid-state batteries as a risk to their control over their lithium ion battery industry.” 

Experts have long hoped that solid-state batteries can revolutionize the EV sector. The idea is that by swapping batteries that use liquid electrolytes that are key to battery technology for ones with nonflammable, solid electrolytes based on oxides, sulfides or polymers, they will become safer and have a greater energy density — in turn allowing EVs to have faster charging times, longer ranges and an extended lifespan. 

To date, some battery manufacturers around the world have succeeded in making solid-state batteries at a small scale, but there remain significant hurdles to scaling up production and lowering costs. China is the only region where companies such as Beijing WeLion are already trying to commercialize less mature cells that either still contain some form of liquid electrolyte or use traditional anode chemistries, McNulty says.

Last month, Hefei-based Gotion High-tech presented its first solid-state cell known as Gemstone with aims to start trial production by 2027. In April, Guangzhou-based GAC Aion, a top-selling EV brand in China, said it made a breakthrough in the technology and plans to install the new solid-state batteries in its Hyper cars by 2026. 

Others are partnering up. State-owned automaker Changan, for example, has tapped Ganfeng Lithium, a major Chinese lithium producer and battery maker, to mass produce semi-solid-state batteries by next year.

“If the rollout [of these batteries] goes well, that’s a green flag for the global industry. It says these materials can be manufactured on scale,” says McNulty, adding that success could help draw further investment into this area. 

Yet by some metrics, China is behind its foreign counterparts in developing solid-state batteries, while experts say it is too early to predict who will win the race to develop the technology. 

Japan’s Toyota, which is among the earliest to commit to the research and development of solid state batteries, has been granted 1,790 patents in the technology, according to analytics firm GlobalData. By contrast, CATL, the top patent holder in China, has 254.

Ping Liu, director of the Sustainable Power and Energy Center at University of California San Diego (UCSD), says among peer-reviewed published literature from China, “there are very few claims in all solid state batteries with actual measured device performance that we can independently confirm.”

In the U.S., innovation has mostly been led by startups such as Solid Power, QuantumScape and SES, which have delivered sample cells to their partners, including BMW, Volkswagen, Hyundai and Honda, for tests. “They’re already ahead of the game,” says Sakshi Mehra, an analyst in battery supply chain at the research firm Wood Mackenzie.

Chinese companies could face further stiff competition from manufacturers in other parts of Asia, such as Korea’s Samsung, which has invested heavily in researching the technology, and Taiwan’s ProLogium, which opened a new plant in January to produce solid-state lithium ceramic batteries at a large scale.

…the problem isn’t so much who’s going to be able to develop the technology and invent it, but who’s going to be able to make it at scale, at cost, and reliably.

Ilaria Mazzocco, a senior fellow with at the Center for Strategic and International Studies

This level of global interest means it is unlikely China will come to achieve similar dominance in solid-state batteries as it currently holds in the broader industry: the country produces four in every five of the world’s lithium-ion batteries now, according to research company Trendforce. By 2030, China will make up around 38 percent of solid-state battery installed capacity by 2030, Benchmark Minerals Intelligence forecasts, with the U.S. and Europe representing 25 and 22 percent respectively. 

“China must develop all-solid-state batteries, but the reason for such efforts should not be to subvert others, but to prevent other countries from subverting us,” said Ouyang Minggao, a scholar with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, at a conference last month. 

For individual manufacturers, however, the race to develop solid-state batteries can present a conundrum — why devote resources to such next-generation technologies when they are so far ahead in existing lithium-ion batteries? 

“For companies like CATL and BYD, it can be challenging to invest heavily in both technologies from an R&D standpoint,” says Tu Le, founder of the consultancy Sino Auto Insights. “Most companies aren’t too excited about disrupting themselves when they are the biggest players.”

One issue battery manufacturers in China and elsewhere face is that they cannot easily adapt their existing facilities to make solid-state batteries. 

“Regardless of the material used, solid-state batteries really require a brand new manufacturing process,” says Liu, of UCSD. “Even if a company figured it out, there’s huge inertia to dump all the infrastructure it spent billions of dollars building and start anew.” 

Solid-state batteries’ cost remains a limiting factor, too. For instance, the 150-kWh pack Beijing Welion produced for NIO is on its own almost as expensive as the brand’s cheapest car model, the ET5 electric sedan, a co-founder of NIO revealed earlier this year. 

Early applications of solid-state batteries are thus likely to be in the luxury car segment. Meanwhile, the ongoing price war among Chinese automakers in electric vehicles means they will likely prioritize affordability in the near term. 

“As always, with these technologies, the problem isn’t so much who’s going to be able to develop the technology and invent it, but who’s going to be able to make it at scale, at cost, and reliably,” says Ilaria Mazzocco, a senior fellow with at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

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