He called for cooperation between academia, engineering and industry, adding that “basic research and applied research should be closely integrated to accelerate the industrialisation of research results”.

Chinese scientists produce a powerful winter-proof lithium battery

Solid-state batteries are expected to be a game-changing technology, offering considerably faster charging times, better performance and higher safety standards than traditional liquid-state lithium-ion packs.

They are expected to increase the energy density – a measure of energy-saving ability – of existing batteries from 300 watt-hours (Wh) per kilogram to 500Wh per kilogram. And they will be safer than today’s batteries, with fewer combustion and explosion risks.

Companies from Japan, South Korea, Europe and the United States, which have lagged behind China in traditional lithium batteries, have pinned their hopes on next-generation battery technology, including solid-state batteries, to pull ahead.

In January, Beijing launched the China All-Solid-State Battery Collaborative Innovation Platform (Casip), a consortium that brings together government, academia and industry, including EV battery giants CATL and BYD.

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‘Overtaking on a bend’: how China’s EV industry charged ahead to dominate the global market

‘Overtaking on a bend’: how China’s EV industry charged ahead to dominate the global market

In an interview with the state-run China Youth Daily newspaper last month, Chen said the development of lithium batteries in China was following a “step-by-step strategy”. He added that the country had transitioned from being a follower to a leader in lithium-ion batteries, which are now widely used in pure electric vehicles.

He said China had invested in the research and commercialisation of lithium batteries for more than four decades, even when funding was scarce and the field was still marginalised.

Chen began his research into solid state lithium batteries as a visiting scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Germany in the late 1970s, when the field was in its infancy.

In 1980, two years after returning to China, Chen established the country’s first solid-state ionic laboratory at the Institute of Physics. CAS has listed solid-state ionics and lithium batteries as a key project in three of its five-year plans since then – signalling the technology’s importance as a funding priority.

Speaking at a seminar in 2009, Chen said that “the emphasis on basic research, capital investment from the government and companies, as well as the right national strategy” were the three key factors that made China’s battery industry stand out.

As China powers ahead on EVs, battery plant health risks raise a red flag

Chen isn’t the only scientist to note China’s advantages in battery development.

Zhejiang University researcher Fan Xiulin said China’s extensive and mature lithium-ion battery industrial chain could pave the way for the country’s next-generation battery boom.

Fan spent several years as a researcher in the US and recalled that when he wanted to turn the technology he developed in the laboratory into a product, he got stuck because there were few companies that could manufacture it – a problem he would not have encountered in China.

Fan is confident about the prospects of China’s solid-state batteries, saying the achievements in lithium-ion battery technology over the past 40 years show the field’s potential.

“When a technology has reached a certain level of accumulation and the industrial chain has been thoroughly developed, the Chinese market will explode,” he said.