Integrated Battery and Innovative Battery Technology Research Report, 2026

Power Battery Research: Sales of High-Capacity Vehicles Keep Rising, and Solid-State Batteries Begin to Be Installed in Vehicles

I. Sales of High-Capacity Vehicles Sustain Growth, and Those with A Cruising Range of Over 400 Kilometers Account for Over 50%.

According to data from the China Industry Technology Innovation Strategic Alliance For Electric Vehicle and the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), in 2025, the cumulative installed capacity of power batteries in new energy vehicles in China reached 769.7 GWh, a year-on-year increase of 40.4%, of which the cumulative installed capacity of ternary batteries was 144.1 GWh, accounting for 18.7% of the total, and increasing by 3.7%; the cumulative installed capacity of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries was 625.3 GWh, or 81.2% of the total, up by 52.9%.

In terms of cruising range (working condition method, kilometers), according to the full-year sales of new energy vehicles in 2025, vehicles with a range below 300 kilometers accounted for 45% of the total sales, a proportion down from 50.6% in January 2025 to 43.5% in December 2025; vehicles with a range of over 400 kilometers took up 49%, up from 44.8% in January 2025 to 51.4% in December 2025; vehicles with a range of over 700 kilometers made up 7%, up from 6.3% in January 2025 to 9.7% in December 2025.

From the perspective of battery packaging forms, CTP (Cell To Pack) remains the mainstream. Although CTC (Cell to Chassis) and CTB (Cell To Body) technologies have great advantages in space utilization and comprehensive cruising range, their maintenance costs are still 2-3 times that of CTP. Battery suppliers and OEMs tend to improve the comprehensive range of new energy vehicles by increasing charging rates and promoting the application of new battery technologies such as solid-state batteries.

II. Rapid Penetration of Superfast Charging Batteries Combined with Accelerated Deployment of Supercharging Stations Greatly Alleviate Users’ “Range Anxiety”.

Seen from the development trend of the new energy vehicle market, the improvement of charging rate is an inevitable trend. On the one hand, as battery technology advances, the cruising range of new energy vehicles has been on the rise, which makes users' demand for fast charging increasingly urgent. On the other hand, the gradual improvement of infrastructure such as charging piles has provided strong support for increasing charging rates.

Generally, a charging rate of 3C or above is defined as ultra-fast charging. Although the current 800V high-voltage architecture falls short of ultra-fast charging, the realization of ultra-fast charging requires its support. The 800V architecture is rapidly penetrating into 60kWh~80kWh new energy models, growing fast in 800V models priced below RMB200,000, and expected to be available to models below RMB150,000.

In April 2025, CATL launched the second-generation Shenxing Super-Fast Charging Battery. This LFP battery features a peak charging rate of 12C and a power output of 1.3 megawatts. It can deliver a range of 520 kilometers with a 5-minute charge (i.e., 2.5km per second of charging), and only takes 15 minutes to charge from 10% to 80% at -10℃.

In March 2026, BYD released the Second-Generation Blade Battery and grouped Flash charging technology. With innovations such as the "Full-Chain Ion Flash Technology System", it only takes 5 minutes to charge from 10% to 70% and 9 minutes from 10% to 97%.

BYD also launched a flash charging pile with a maximum output power of 1,500kW, and reduced the impact on the power grid through an energy storage system, which greatly improves charging efficiency. By the end of 2026, BYD plans to build and complete 20,000 flash charging stations in China, including 18,000 "Flash Charging Stations-in-Stations" and 2,000 "Highway Flash Charging Stations". On April 3, 2026, BYD revealed at its performance briefing that its 5,000th flash charging station and the first batch of national highway flash charging stations have been put into operation, and it is accelerating the implementation of its "Flash Charging China" strategy.

Li Auto has boasted about 1,100 highway ultra-fast charging stations by the end of 2025, and plans to build 1,680 highway ultra-fast charging stations by the end of 2026. XPeng plans to put into operation 4,500 ultra-fast charging stations by the end of 2026. Huawei plans to build 2,000 ultra-fast charging stations by the end of 2026. As of late February 2026, Geely's self-built charging system has had a total of 2,103 self-built charging stations nationwide, including 1,216 ultra-fast charging stations (5,468 charging piles). Geely recently released a set of charging data: the Lynk & Co 10 equipped with a 900V ShenDun Golden Battery only takes 4 minutes and 22 seconds to charge from 10% to 70%, 5 minutes and 32 seconds from 10% to 80%, and 8 minutes and 42 seconds from 10% to 97%.

On July 1, 2026, GB 38031-2025 " Electric Vehicles Traction Battery Safety Requirements", known as the "strictest battery safety standard in history", was implemented. For fast-charging batteries with a 20%-80% charging time of no more than 15 minutes, the new national standard requires an external short-circuit test after 300 fast-charging cycles, and "no fire, no explosion", compared with the previous 2020 national standard that requires "an alarm signal provided 5 minutes before fire or explosion".

In fact, for car users, when the charging time is within 15 minutes, the marginal benefit of a further improvement of 1 minute or 10 seconds has dropped significantly, and the extremely short charging time will not attract much attention from consumers. Most OEMs or suppliers have focused on innovative power battery technologies.

III. Solid-State Batteries (Semi-Solid-State Batteries) Begin to Be Installed in Vehicles in 2026, and Come into Mass Production and Use in the Next Two Years.

Solid-state battery-equipped vehicles have entered the road test stage in 2026. In late December 2025, Hongqi's first all-solid-state battery pack was successfully installed in the Tiangong 06 model which was also trail-produced and rolled off the production line; in January 2026, Geely announced that its all-solid-state battery pack is expected to be rolled off the production line, and verified on vehicles in 2026.

Many OEMs and battery companies have clarified the mass production time of all-solid-state batteries. For example, GAC Group plans to achieve installation of all-solid-state batteries in 2026, first equipping Hyptec models; SAIC Motor plans to start mass production of all-solid-state batteries in the fourth quarter of 2026; Changan plans to complete verification of all-solid-state batteries on vehicles in 2026 and phase in mass production in 2027; battery companies such as CATL, EVE Energy, CALB, SVOLT Energy, Farasis Energy, and FinDreams Battery also plan mass production of all-solid-state batteries from 2027 to 2030.

Although the mass production of solid-state batteries by leading OEMs and battery suppliers is concentrated in the period from 2026 to 2028, the large-scale installation and application of solid-state batteries in vehicles are still affected by many factors such as battery materials, battery processes, engineering technologies, and mass production costs. The time window has now opened, and it all depends on the technological stability, industry chain collaboration, and implementation capabilities of each enterprise.