BYD, Tesla’s biggest competitor, has just formed a partnership with the world’s largest battery manufacturers, including CATL. A project supported by the Chinese government. The objective: to produce a solid battery as quickly as possible, in order to revolutionize the autonomy and rapid charging of electric cars.
Currently, the vast majority of batteries for electric cars are produced by Chinese companies. The top 3 is made up of the two Chinese companies CATL and BYD (which also produces electric cars) as well as the Korean LG. CATL collected around 37% of the market share in 2023, compared to 16% for BYD and 14% for LG. Figures which allow us to realize Chinese domination in the field.
And this is not about to stop. While the solid-state battery revolution allowed us to have a little hope with Japanese companies (we think in particular of Toyota), American (QuantumScape) or even European (NorthVolt), we will ultimately have to deal with a Chinese strike force . The local media Nikkei Asia in fact tells us that China has just formed an alliance around solid-state batteries.
China hits hard on solid-state battery
The consortium created by the Chinese government is called CASIP (China All-Solid-State Battery Collaborative Innovation Platform) and includes both automobile manufacturers (BYD or Nio) as well as big names in the battery field (CATL, FinDreams, CALB, EVE Energy and Gotion). Names that we often talk about on Survoltés, since they all work on batteries with long autonomy and ultra-fast recharging.
But the purpose of this consortium goes even further, since six of the 10 largest battery manufacturers in the world now have the common goal of creating a revolutionary battery. The famous solid battery that we have been talking about for many years. The idea: double the range of electric cars and allow ultra-fast recharging, faster than the 10 minutes required by the best battery currently on the market, available on the Li Auto Mega.
China wants to flood the world by 2030
China’s objective is not to retain the exclusivity of these solid batteries for local electric cars. No, no, China wants to flood the global market with its future revolutionary batteries. As it currently does with lithium-ion batteries and their different chemistries.
A date has already been announced: 2030. Ouyang Minggao, a Chinese academic in charge of the project, specifies that “ around 2030, we will have a greater chance of accomplishing the revolution necessary to industrialize solid-state batteries“. For once, the Chinese are not necessarily ahead, since the other solid battery players are also planning a mass production date around 2030, like BMW for example.
First units before 2030
However, we should see the first solid-state batteries appear in electric cars before 2030. But these will surely be high-end, overpriced cars, produced in small quantities. A bit like the Zeekr 001 with its 140 kWh battery allowing it to cover more than 1000 km in one go. A “traditional” lithium battery, but only available in limited edition.
For their part, some experts believe that the solid-state battery will arrive too late, and that the lithium-ion battery will succeed, with the various improvements to come, in doing better than its solid-state counterpart. It must be said that we are already talking about recharging in 5 minutes with lithium-ion batteries, and electric cars with a range exceeding 1,000 km are already sold in China.
In any case, in 2030, electric cars will no longer have anything to envy of thermal cars in terms of range and time required to refuel. Whether with solid-state batteries or lithium-ion batteries. In the meantime, semi-solid batteries (like the one found in Nio electric cars) have already taken over.