China unveiled a new five-year plan for its battery industry, aiming for the initial large-scale application of all-solid-state batteries by 2030 as the country accelerates the transition of next-generation battery technology from research to commercialization. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), together with six other government agencies, jointly issued the new development plan. The plan comes as China continues to expand its role in the global battery supply chain and seeks to strengthen its leadership in the global energy transition. The country already has strong battery manufacturing capacity, but industry experts said that it still needs to improve basic research and core technologies to maintain long-term competitiveness.
To promote the high-quality development of the industry, efforts will be made to accelerate technological innovation, industrial transformation and upgrading, improve the industrial system, enhance the capacity of industrial science and technology services, and raise the quality and level of trade and investment cooperation, according to the document.
Over the next five years, China plans to make major breakthroughs in advanced electrode materials, new electrolytes and high-end auxiliary materials. The plan also called for significant progress in new battery systems, with all-solid-state batteries moving toward initial large-scale deployment by 2030. New batteries refer to energy storage and conversion devices built on new mechanisms, materials, structures and manufacturing processes. They include lithium batteries, sodium batteries and flow batteries. All-solid-state batteries are one of the plan's key technological priorities. Compared with conventional lithium-ion batteries, which typically use flammable liquid electrolytes, solid-state batteries use solid electrolytes and are considered safer and potentially capable of offering higher energy density, Sun Xiaohong, former Secretary General of the Automotive Branch of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products, told the Global Times
The plan calls for faster breakthroughs in commercialization of technologies, with a focus on improving ionic conductivity, cycle stability and cost efficiency. It also stresses the need to advance key materials and processes, including interface contact technology, high ionic conductivity, long life cycles and engineering pressure system design. China's solid-state battery market is projected to grow from USD42.5 million in 2025 to USD384.8 million by 2030, a compound annual growth rate of 44.4%, significantly outpacing the global average of 37.5%, according to market research platform MarketsandMarkets. China now supplies about 70% of the world's battery materials and more than 60% of power batteries, the Global Times reports.
Meanwhile, Gotion announced that it will invest about €1.6 billion to build three manufacturing facilities in Spain, Slovakia and Morocco, with Volkswagen Group putting in a similar amount. The factories, to be jointly owned by the German brand and China’s fourth-largest EV battery maker, would be capable of delivering 37.5 gigawatt hours (GWh) of lithium-ion battery capacity and 100,000 metric tons of cathode materials a year, Gotion said. One GWh of EV battery power is enough to run about 20,000 pure electric cars with a range of 500 km. Gotion, based in Hefei, Anhui province, is 24.3%-owned by VW. Gotion, along with its three bigger domestic rivals – Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), BYD and CALB – commanded a combined 64.4% share of the global EV battery market in the first seven months of the year.
