6 billion RMB invested in R&D, accelerating the industrialization of the trillion-dollar solid-state battery market

Recently, according to a report by China Daily, China may invest about 6 billion yuan in the research and development of all-solid-state batteries . A total of six companies, including CATL , BYD , FAW, SAIC, Weilan New Energy and Geely, are expected to receive government basic research and development support.

Solid-state batteries, which are called "hexagonal warriors" by many companies, are regarded as the next generation of important technological breakthroughs in the field of new energy vehicles , or even the "Technology Everest" due to their advantages in charging time , driving range, and theoretical safety performance. Some power battery industry experts said that the upstream and downstream of the industry chain will increase investment in the research and development of all-solid-state batteries, which may drive a trillion-yuan market.

▍Expected to be put into use in small batches in 2027

The B side of solid-state batteries' high safety and long battery life is the multiple challenges of new material innovation and high cost. Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, recently stated at the 2024 Annual Conference of the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance that "the key to the development of all-solid-state batteries is to achieve the transformation of electrolytes from liquid to solid and the transformation of negative electrode materials."

In addition, Auto Market Ruijian also learned from the speeches of many companies that solid-state batteries still have problems such as immature production technology and the need to reduce costs in the industrial chain. How to achieve mass production has become a key challenge in the current solid-state battery field.

At the market level, although some manufacturers have launched solid-state batteries, most of them are actually semi-solid-state batteries. The core of moving from liquid batteries to all-solid-state batteries is the change of electrolytes, which requires chemical materials to improve energy density, etc., while technology and manufacturing processes, as well as related yield rates, all test the company's R&D and production capabilities. In the view of Li Hong, a researcher at the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, it is relatively difficult for solid-state batteries to go all the way to all-solid-state batteries, and it may have to go through a mixed solid-liquid process.

At the corporate level, Guoxuan High-tech Chief Scientist Zhu Xingbao said: "Although solid-state batteries have the advantages of high energy density, high safety and fast charging and discharging, they are currently limited by the inherent properties of solid electrolytes and electrode materials. Solid-solid interface point contact, severe interface impedance, low production line compatibility and high production costs."

Image source: Internet

Despite the high difficulty of technological breakthroughs, Cheshi Ruijian still found at the conference that many scholars and experts are very optimistic about the development trend of solid-state batteries, and vehicle manufacturers and industrial chain companies are actively planning. "Solid-state batteries will help electrify transportation and clean energy, and accelerate the third energy revolution." said Xu Hangyu, R&D director of Weilan New Energy.

Image source: Internet

"At present, my country's solid-state battery technology is in its infancy before product introduction. With the support of national projects, the research and development of all-solid-state batteries will be accelerated. It is expected to catch up with the level of Japan and South Korea within 3-5 years. It is expected that all-solid-state batteries can be demonstrated and installed on a small scale in 2027, and large-scale mass production and installation can be achieved in 2030." Zhou Anjian, senior project director of Shenlan Automotive Technology Co., Ltd. said.

Xinwangda Vice President Liang Rui revealed: "Xinwangda has long been planning and developing new-generation batteries such as solid-state batteries. At present, 400Wh/kg solid-state batteries have been developed in our laboratory, and we will build a production line for initial mass production in 2026."

However, Liang Rui also believes that we should look at the development of solid-state batteries rationally. "When we make batteries, we must not only consider good functionality, but also whether its reliability can meet the requirements of commercialization, and whether its economic efficiency can allow everyone to promote and use it on a large scale. Therefore, the arrival of solid-state batteries does not mean that liquid batteries will be eliminated all of a sudden."

Zeng Yuqun, chairman of CATL, also said in public, "CATL has invested in this area for 10 years. Solid-state batteries will only have great advantages if new chemical materials are used and pure lithium metal is used for the negative electrode. There are still many difficulties in bringing such batteries to the market."

▍Competition for new technology commanding heights at home and abroad

For domestic enterprises, the national team's efforts to support solid-state batteries will be a major benefit. But for European and American car companies such as Tesla , as well as Japanese and Korean car companies and battery companies, the breakthrough of new technologies means a new round of competition.

In the field of solid-state batteries, European, American, Japanese and Korean companies have already begun to "move forward". At the end of 2023, Toyota announced that it would join forces with Japanese energy companies to break through the bottleneck of solid-state battery technology as soon as possible and achieve mass production. Toyota currently has more than 1,300 patents in the field of solid-state batteries, and is leading by a large margin in the field of sulfide electrolytes. South Korea is mainly composed of Samsung, LG and other companies at the battery cell level, and Japanese and Korean companies are relatively collaborative.

Honda and Nissan have also finalized their timetables for mass production of solid-state batteries, setting the time for large-scale mass production at around 2027.

Image source: Soild Power

In addition, BBA in Europe, Tesla, Ford and GM in the United States have also increased their investment in solid-state battery technology. Most of them have adopted the approach of cooperating with start-up technology companies to develop solid-state batteries. For example, Ford and BMW invested in the famous European battery factory Soild Power; GM invested in the lithium metal battery company SES; Mercedes-Benz invested in Factorial Energy, etc.

It can be seen that European, American, Japanese and Korean companies have postponed the focus of new energy vehicles in order to make early arrangements in the long-term technology of solid-state batteries, so as to overtake China's new energy vehicle industry in the future.

Image source: Qingtao Energy

Domestically, companies such as Weilan New Energy, Qingtao Energy and Ganfeng Lithium have already achieved mass production and installation of semi-solid-state batteries, and related products of companies such as Dongfeng and NIO have been put on the market. In October, Zhiji L6 equipped with Lightyear semi-solid-state batteries will be officially delivered to users. GAC Aion also announced that it plans to develop all-solid-state batteries in 2026 and will first be installed on Haobo models.

In the opinion of industry experts, the development of high-performance lithium batteries should be multi-dimensional and application-oriented. In addition to exploring the cutting-edge technology of solid-state batteries, the deep accumulation and significant advantages in the field of liquid batteries should not be ignored.

It is foreseeable that solid-state batteries, especially all-solid-state batteries, will be difficult to achieve large-scale commercialization in the short term, and the next 10 years will be a critical opportunity period for research and development. On this new track, Academician Ouyang Minggao reminded that in the face of global competition, China should actively respond to potential disruptive technologies while maintaining its existing advantages to ensure the continued development of the industry.

He took the example of electric vehicles replacing fuel vehicles, "Chinese electric vehicles have only replaced 30% of fuel vehicles, and the world is exclaiming that Chinese cars are leading. Around 2016, when China's new energy vehicle market share reached 1%, the world began to turn to electric vehicles . For automotive technology, 1% is a very important market share, so the market share of all-solid-state batteries does not need to replace 50%, replacing 1% is already a breakthrough."