CATL founder Zeng Yuqun: The future direction of batteries is sodium-ion batteries

Recently, Zeng Yuqun of CATL stated in an interview with the Financial Times that although solid-state battery technology is highly regarded in electric vehicles, current solid-state batteries are neither practical nor safe. Zeng said that CATL has been developing solid-state battery technology for 10 years, but has encountered obstacles in the application process of electric vehicles.

Solid-state batteries for new energy vehicles are still several years away from true commercialization, with many factors hindering their development. Zeng Yuqun, founder of CATL, told the Financial Times that solid-state battery technology is not yet mature enough, lacks durability, and still has safety issues. Although many industry experts believe that solid-state batteries, which avoid the liquid electrolytes used in current technology, can achieve greater driving range, thus revolutionizing electric vehicles, Toyota has been promoting progress in solid-state batteries and promises to deliver them as early as 2027. Zeng Yuqun questioned whether his Japanese competitors have truly embarked on the path to near-term commercialization.

CATL fully supports solid-state battery technology and has been doing so for 10 years," Zeng said. "Almost every month, I see the work of our research and development team in solid-state batteries, so I know all the progress, but for some reason, we still face many obstacles." Zeng said that solid-state batteries will only have significant advantages when using new chemical materials and pure lithium metal for the negative electrode, and there are still many difficulties in bringing solid-state batteries to the market. Lithium ions diffuse easily in current liquid electrolytes, but not in solid-state materials. Zeng said: Engineers are trying to solve this problem by combining materials under very high pressure, then testing them, and finally concluding: very good, ion transfer is very good. But in reality, how can you subject solid-state batteries to such high pressure?

The second issue is the expansion of lithium during charge and discharge processes. This damages the battery and leads to a too-short battery life. "He said, "Solid-state batteries cannot sustain multiple charge and discharge cycles, perhaps only 10 cycles of life." So, how can it be made commercially viable? Finally, Zeng said that safety issues still exist because if the battery ruptures in a car accident, lithium will react with moisture in the air. He said, "Therefore, people are quite hopeful for solid-state batteries, but I tell them, CATL has spent 10 years," he added, his team is "among the best" in achieving the feasibility of solid-state batteries.

CATL has continued to grow over the past decade, providing 37% of global power batteries last year, with Zeng Yuqun being a highly influential figure in the industry. According to data, CATL also produces 40% of energy storage batteries. Zeng Yuqun said that the goal of CATL' research team is not solid-state batteries, but sodium-ion batteries and condensed-state batteries using semi-solid materials, prototypes of which have already been put into production. CATL claims that this semi-solid material can store twice the energy of traditional lithium-ion batteries.