China’s battery revolution: Here’s how far electric cars could soon have a range

Changan announces 1,500 km range battery tests

One of the loudest announcements came from state-owned auto giant Changan Automobile. The company has announced that it plans to begin the first test installations of its “golden bell” all-solid-state battery before the third quarter of 2026. The numbers accompanying this announcement are more astonishing: Changan claims that their new technology achieves an energy density of 400 Wh/kg, which should give electric vehicles a range of about 1,500 kilometers according to the Chinese CLTC test cycle.

This step is crucial because the technology is moving from the laboratory to real vehicles, where its performance will have to be proven in real driving conditions. Changan aims to start serial production of moreć 2027, and with the huge range, there are also significant improvements in safety, achieved through the use of diagnostics guided by artificial intelligence.

No moreć crossed 1000 kilometers in real conditions

While Changan has yet to prove its impressive numbers in practice, the competitive Nio moreć has shown what can be achieved with a new generation of batteries. In December 2023, he foundedč and company director William Li sat down to manageč model Nio ET7, equipped with a semi-solid-state battery with a capacity of 150 kWh, and drove from Shanghai to Xiamen. After fourteen hours of driving, during which he covered exactly 1044 kilometers, the battery still had three percent of its capacity left.

The test was all the more impressive because it was conducted in winter conditions, with temperatures dropping to -2 degrees Celsius, and 92 percent of the time the vehicle was on the advanced assistance system. while driving (NOP+). In April 2024, the company repeated the test on three different routes, achieving results of 1046, 1062 and even 1070 kilometers. The battery for Nio was developed and manufactured by the company WeLion New Energy, and the energy density of its cells is 360 Wh/kg, while the entire package has a density of 260 Wh/kg.

A race in which all the great players participate

Changan and Nio are by no means alone in this race. Other Chinese giants such as Dongfeng and Geely have announced their own solutions that aim for a range of more than a thousand kilometers. Dongfeng has developed a type of battery with an energy density of around 350 Wh/kg, while Geely plans to complete the production of its first all-solid-state package during 2026, aiming for a density of up to 400 Wh/kg.

This technological offensive is not limited to only types of batteries. The world’s largest producer of battery, CATL, već has delivered its Qilin batteries for the Zeekr 001, a model that goes 1032 kilometers on a single charge. In addition, they presented their Shenxing Plus LFP battery, which, although it has a low energy density (about 205 Wh/kg), enables a range of up to 1000 kilometers and extremely fast charging – about 600 kilometers of range in just ten minutes of charging.

However, the road to mass adoption is still full of challenges. The main obstacle is the price. Ni has previously admitted that their 150 kWh battery costs almost as much as their entire ET5 model. For this very reason, Nio offers this battery primarily through its “Battery as a Service” (BaaS) subscription model, where owners can rent a larger capacity battery for longer trips. The fact that China is working on establishing national standards for battery types, which should be published in mid-2026, is a clear signal that the industry is preparing for the next big step, which will forever change the perception of electric cars.