In 2025, the technological development of the automotive industry entered a new stage. As intelligent technology advances, new battery technology for electrification has also made new progress.

Compared with liquid batteries, the safety, energy density, and service life of solid-state batteries have all been improved. The latest research report of the Chebai Think Tank under the China Electric Vehicle Hundred People's Association, "All-solid-state batteries are expected to lead a new round of battery revolution", believes that the current energy density of liquid lithium-ion batteries is close to the upper limit (about 350Wh/kg), while the energy density of all-solid-state batteries is expected to exceed 500 Wh/kg, and has the potential for "technological disruption" in product performance. Therefore, solid-state batteries have been regarded as an important development direction for the next generation of batteries by major power battery manufacturers and new energy vehicle companies, but they still need to overcome problems such as technology and high costs.

Yang Chenglin, head of the solid-state battery project of the BYD Group Research Institute, said that the problems faced by solid-state batteries include excessive cost (the cost of all-solid-state batteries reaches 5 yuan/Wh) and high operating pressure (the pressure required for the operation of all-solid-state batteries is at the megapascal level).

However, in the past year, with the continuous iteration of technical processes, the cost of raw materials required for solid-state batteries has dropped significantly. Yang Chenglin said that, for example, the lithium sulfide required for solid electrolytes can be sold at a price of 1,000 yuan per kilogram in large quantities.

As the cost of raw materials drops, manufacturers in the industry chain are also accelerating the mass production of solid-state batteries. On May 17, Guoxuan High-tech released six new batteries, including the G-Yuan quasi-solid-state battery with a range of 1,000 kilometers. Among them, the all-solid-state battery has entered the pre-production stage. B&T also recently released a comprehensive solution for solid-state battery materials, covering semi-solid and all-solid-state battery materials, with a layout involving positive, negative, and electrolytes, and has the technical conditions for mass production. The Hunan Enjie Sulfide Solid Electrolyte Material Pilot Production Line Project under Enjie Co., Ltd. has landed in Yuxi this month. After the project is fully completed and put into production, it is expected to form an annual production capacity of 1,000 tons of sulfide solid electrolyte materials.

In practical applications, solid-state batteries are accelerating their adoption. Changan Automobile released a solid-state battery with a capacity of 400wh/kg and a range of 1,500 kilometers. The first prototype will be launched at the end of 2025. SAIC's new generation of solid-state batteries will be mass-produced and applied to the new MG4 at the end of this year. GAC Group has initially opened up the full-process manufacturing process of solid-state batteries and will install them on Wubo models in 2026. BYD will start mass demonstration and installation of all-solid-state batteries around 2027, and realize large-scale installation after 2030.

It is worth mentioning that the transition of power batteries from liquid to all-solid state, and the semi-solid-state batteries in the intermediate transition period are also controversial. Zeng Yuqun, founder and chairman of CATL, bluntly stated that some car companies over-promote the maturity of solid-state battery technology, which is actually misleading the public and investors. He said: "It is irresponsible to say that solid-state batteries will be widely used in 2025. It takes at least 8 to 10 years for solid-state batteries to go from laboratory samples to mass production. At present, most of the so-called "solid-state batteries" are semi-solid or quasi-solid, and still contain a certain proportion of liquid electrolytes, which are fundamentally different from true all-solid-state batteries."

Liu Yang, director of the solid-state R&D department of Enjie Co., Ltd.'s Global Research Institute, predicts that around 2030, the proportion of liquid batteries will still account for more than 90% of the market share. At the same time, semi-solid/solid-liquid hybrid batteries have been put on the bus, and the development of the entire industrial chain is accelerating; Enjie Co., Ltd. has also laid out key raw materials for sulfide all-solid-state batteries to accelerate the industrialization process of all-solid-state batteries.

The above judgment is based on the high cost of all-solid-state batteries. The current liquid lithium batteries have better cost-effectiveness. Therefore, solid-state batteries will be used in certain sub-sectors such as deep space (aerospace), deep sea, deep earth, etc., and the market applications now and in the future will still be dominated by liquid lithium batteries and semi-solid-state batteries.

Yang Chenglin said that the annual compound growth rate of the solid-state battery market will be 30% in the next ten years, reaching 500GWh by 2035, of which sulfide all-solid-state batteries will account for about 41% and semi-solid-state batteries will account for about 33%.

From the industry perspective, semi-solid-state batteries and solid-state batteries are constantly moving forward with discussions. According to incomplete statistics from the Research Center of the Power Battery Application Branch of the China Chemical and Physical Power Sources Industry Association, in the first quarter of 2025, domestic solid-state and semi-solid-state battery projects will invest about 18.8 billion yuan, involving a production capacity of 48.3GWh, mainly in new energy vehicles and high-end energy storage scenarios.

The "Key Points for Industrial and Information Technology Standards Work in 2025" issued by the Science and Technology Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology proposed to strengthen the top-level design of standard work in key areas, and solidly promote the "Implementation Plan for the New Industry Standardization Pilot Project (2023-2035)", establish and improve the standard system of intelligent manufacturing, all-solid-state batteries, industrial Internet, cloud computing, smart homes, and automotive carbon footprint, and build high-quality development services for the industry with high-level standards.

Zheng Yali, assistant secretary-general of the China Society of Automotive Engineers and vice president of the National Automotive Strategy Institute, believes that the selection of solid-state battery electrolytes must take into account conductivity, processability, stability and manufacturing costs. There are currently two main technical routes that are closer to industrialization, one is sulfide electrolytes, and the other is polymer composite electrolytes. The mass production and application of all-solid-state batteries also need to focus on breakthroughs in key scientific issues at the material level and efficient production processes/low costs at the industrial level. It is expected that an all-solid-state battery pilot line will be established around 2027 and a prototype vehicle will be launched. Around 2030, it will be possible to achieve small-scale mass production of all-solid-state batteries and install them on vehicles.

Source: YICAI

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