A CATL battery pack on display at the Beijing Auto Show in April 2026. Credit: CnEVPost
- CATL’s chairman said solid-state batteries must still clear three main hurdles before mass production.
- The company has said mass adoption of solid-state batteries in millions of vehicles is unlikely before 2030.
Robin Zeng, chairman of Chinese power battery giant CATL (HKEX: 3750), said solid-state batteries remain a long way from large-scale mass production.
Zeng made the comments at the 2026 Summer Davos forum in Dalian on Tuesday, according to a Wednesday report by local newspaper Bandao Morning Post.
If solid-state battery technology is measured on a scale of level 1 to level 9, progress has only reached level 4 so far, the CATL chairman said.
Level 9 is what would mark the point at which the batteries “can be mass produced,” he said.
Mass production depends not only on the technology path but also on the product path and the commercial path, Zeng noted.
The product path tests whether supply is sufficient and whether the reliability and safety of the product can meet requirements, he said.
The commercial path concerns market acceptance, namely whether the product can ultimately be sold in large volumes, he added.
Zeng had previously said that mass adoption of solid-state batteries in millions of vehicles is unlikely before 2030.
“To reach the level of millions, cars have to be cheap enough, and that poses some difficulties in both performance and cost,” he said at another event earlier this month.
CATL chief scientist Wu Kai laid out a production timeline in 2024, saying the company aims to reach level 7 to 8 by 2027.
That level would mean small-batch production of all-solid-state batteries becomes possible, though large-scale production would still face issues including cost, Wu said at the time.
CATL is making a big bet on solid-state battery technology, having expanded its related R&D team to more than 1,000 people by the end of 2024.
In the Chinese market, several battery makers are targeting small-batch production of solid-state batteries around 2027.
Rivals including BYD (HKEX: 1211) and Gotion High-tech (SZSE: 002074) are also accelerating their push into next-generation battery technology.
Among automakers, Nio (NYSE: NIO) continues to advance its solid-state battery research, exploring multiple technology paths including oxide and sulfide.
Ganfeng said the battery cell is the world’s first 10 Ah solid-state product to reach a 500 Wh/kg energy density.
