China starts solid-state battery production

#News(General) [ via IoTForIndiaGroup ]

The hype is strong around solid-state batteries as it is believed to be the next step after Li-ion batteries, but no one has really brought them to volume production.

Now, a Chinese startup says that it started a production line of solid-state batteries that will lead to volume production.

Qing Tao Energy Development Co, a startup that spun off of Tsinghua University, one of the highest-ranking technical universities in China, claims to have deployed the first solid-state battery production line in the country.

Solid-state batteries are thought to be a lot safer than common Li-ion cells and have more potential for higher energy density.

Nan Cewen, the head of the startup, says that they invested 1 billion yuan (144 million U.S. dollars) in the production line, according to Chinese media.

The production line, located in the city of Kunshan, East China, has a capacity of 100 MWh per year and they plan to ramp it up to 700 MWh by 2020.

Right now, they are using the batteries for “special equipment and high-end digital products”, but Nan says that they are talking to “a number of large automobile manufacturers” about using their solid-state batteries in electric vehicles.

The executive claims that they have achieved an energy density of “over 400 Wh/kg” compared to the new generation Li-ion battery cells having a capacity of 250 to 300 Wh/kg.

Electrek’s Take
As usual, it’s important to be skeptical when companies announce “battery breakthroughs” because they rarely amount to anything.

But in this case, they are actually bringing them to production.

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