Foton Motor teams up with Funeng to establish a strategic alliance; solid-liquid hybrid batteries are first to be deployed.

Under the ultimate game, solid-state batteries may become the new focus of the new energy sector for the new year. On March 3, Foton Motor announced that the company will collaborate with Funeng Technology, leveraging their respective leading advantages in the industry, to jointly promote the commercial vehicle market and the industrial chain development of semi-solid and solid-state batteries, generate scale effects, advance battery technology innovation, and establish a strategic alliance. "This cooperation will further enhance the competitiveness of Foton Motor's light and heavy-duty truck products in the electric vehicle market," said Ji Yizhi, a member of the Party Committee and Deputy General Manager of Foton Motor. The two sides will carry out in-depth cooperation on semi-solid and solid-state battery projects for commercial vehicles, focusing on light, medium, heavy vehicle platforms, and specific scenarios such as trunk transport, urban logistics, and municipal engineering.

Together they will promote the application of semi-solid and solid-state battery technologies and create new energy vehicle products with market competitiveness and industry-leading technology. Power batteries have always been known as the "heart" of new energy vehicles, and solid-state batteries, with their multiple advantages including much higher energy density and safety compared to lithium-ion batteries, may become "the last straw that breaks the fuel vehicle." "By 2024, semi-solid-state batteries are expected to be applied in batches to the new energy vehicle market, with industrialization accelerating," said Wang Weiqi, an analyst at Guosen Securities. A report by Guosen Securities shows that the market space for global solid-state batteries (including semi-solid-state batteries) is expected to be 1.95 billion yuan in 2024 and is projected to reach 116.23 billion yuan by 2030, with an average annual compound growth rate of 98% from 2024 to 2030. Whoever masters the advanced battery technology will be able to secure a bigger piece of the pie. In China, companies like NIO, Changan Automobile, BYD, Geely, SAIC Motor, GAC Group, Great Wall Motors, Lantu, and Seres are all accelerating the layout of solid-state battery technology routes. Among them, Changan Automobile and GAC Group plan to introduce semi-solid-state battery models between 2025 and 2026.

Dongfeng Motor has already demonstrated the operation of the E70 equipped with solid-state batteries and has introduced the Lantu "Chasing Light" model with semi-solid-state batteries. The speed of product introduction and subsequent pricing strategies for semi-solid-state batteries by SAIC Group will affect its sales performance. Internationally, German automaker BMW previously claimed to have made a breakthrough in solid-state batteries and expects to achieve mass production by 2028, while automakers like Nissan, Toyota, and Volkswagen have plans that are likely to achieve mass production in the 2025-2030 timeframe. "Currently, the critical point of the company's R&D and technological breakthrough lies in that the energy density of all-solid-state batteries based on advanced silicon anodes has been increased from 300Wh/kg to 350Wh/kg, capable of delivering three times the battery life at the same weight, and this 50Wh/kg increase is conducive to vehicle lightweighting as well as an improvement in overall vehicle range," explained Li Jin, head of the battery R&D department at GAC Aian.

Previously, SAIC Group stated on an interaction platform that starting from this year, semi-solid-state batteries will first be mass-produced and used in new products such as the Zhiji L6, and the company is intensifying efforts to accelerate related work, striving to bring products to the market as soon as possible. The layout of leading automakers for solid-state batteries cannot be separated from the support of power battery companies. Recently, Huineng Technology announced that the world's first solid-state battery production line has officially started production. The produced solid-state battery is a large lithium ceramic battery (LLCB), which can achieve 80% charge in just 12 minutes and, when fully charged, enable an electric vehicle to reach a range of over 1000km. Huineng Technology stated that samples of the solid-state battery have been sent to various new energy vehicle companies for testing and development modules. "Currently, most domestic enterprises start with semi-solid-state batteries, which allows for a quicker pace of industrialization," believes Yu Qingjiao, Secretary General of Zhongguancun New Battery Technology Innovation Alliance. Compared to the slow progress of the solid-state battery research abroad, the pragmatic technology roadmap followed in China, which is advancing both all-solid-state and semi-solid-state battery research and mass production, is more practical. In 2023, China has already achieved mass production of semi-solid-state batteries for vehicle use.