Chinese car and battery giant is reported to have tested the first generation of its solid-state battery in BYD vehicles in China, bringing with it a potential range of up to 1,500 km NEDC range.
The reports were first seen in China on smzdm and shared by electrek, and state that the road testing is underway in BYD Seal sedan vehicles.
The pack being tested can be charged in around 12 minutes and is expected to be trialled until around 2027, when it’s predicted to go into limited use in the company’s production cars.
By 2030, BYD’s CTO Sun Huajun expects this battery tech to go into mass-produced vehicles from the brand.
According to these latest reports, the new solid-state battery from BYD is expected to have 400 Wh/kg of energy density, much higher than the current blade battery, which stands at 150 Wh/kg.
There is also an updated version of this LFP blade battery that will take that up to 190 Wh/kg, but it is still less than half of the energy density of the solid-state cells.
Earlier this year, BYD shook the industry by announcing a new architecture that would deliver up to 1,000 kW, or 1 MW, of charging power for some of its EV models, helping to add 400 km of range in just 5 minutes.
This new architecture in the “Super e-Platform” was launched in the latest versions of BYD’s Han L sedan and Tang L SUVs, which began deliveries mid-way through April this year.
These cars come with BYD’s latest blade battery system, clearly designed for ultra-high-speed DC charging from the thousands of 1 MW chargers it’s deploying in many parts of China.
This would hint that his battery tech and charging system aren’t going to be limited to these models but will also be introduced to other, more mass-market vehicles in the future.
While the wait for solid-state batteries continues, with early road testing being undertaken in China, it’s clear that the battery market is seeing incremental shifts.
This ranges from improvements in energy densities, faster charging capabilities, new chemistries designed for affordability to applications where there hasn’t been enough emphasis on electrification.
With BYD’s focus on dominating the NEV market, backed by battery advancements and tech, it’s only a matter of time before range anxiety and ICE vehicles are a thing of the past.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.