Southern Finance and Economics all-media reporter Feng Yuyi reported from Zhuhai

With the mass production of solid-state batteries in China, the development of power batteries has reached the "second half", and a new round of urban industrial layout is starting.

Recently, Zhuhai issued the "Action Plan for Promoting the Development of Solid-State Battery Industry in Zhuhai (2025-2030) (Draft for Comments)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Action Plan"). This is a rare action plan for the solid-state battery industry at the city level, and it has attracted a lot of attention in the industry.

The "Action Plan" proposes that by 2027, we will focus on tackling key materials and key technologies for solid-state batteries, promote the establishment of solid-state battery industry standards, focus on the industrial direction of cutting-edge technology-driven, high-growth and strategic support in the future, lay out a number of major (key) scientific and technological innovation projects, set up 5 engineering (technology) research centers, key laboratories and other scientific and technological innovation platforms, cultivate 5 influential solid-state battery enterprises, and initially form a solid-state battery industry cluster with strong market competitiveness. By 2030, a major breakthrough will be made in promoting the industrialization of solid-state batteries, the level of key materials, core technologies and equipment technologies in the industrial chain will be greatly improved, and the batch delivery of products will be realized, and the solid-state battery industry will initially form a scale.

It is worth mentioning that in this strategic blueprint, Zhuhai not only emphasizes encouraging enterprises to increase R&D investment, but also clarifies the focus on cultivating ultra-high energy density semi-solid-state batteries (more than 350Wh/kg) and all-solid-state batteries (more than 400Wh/kg) projects, and promotes their large-scale mass production.

In

line with the policy, Zhuhai held a seminar on the development of the solid-state battery industry on March 27, at which enterprises such as battery cells, electrolyte materials, cathode and anode materials and equipment from all over the country were gathered to seek a new path for Zhuhai's solid-state battery industry.

A number of business representatives who participated in the seminar believed that all-solid-state lithium-ion batteries are expected to be commercialized in 2027 and mass-produced in 2030, which will reshape the industry pattern at that time. Zhuhai released the action plan for the solid-state battery industry in a timely manner, which not only pointed out the direction for the development of the local solid-state battery industry, but also provided reference experience for the development of related industries in other parts of China.

Faucet traction

Combing the industrial map of Zhuhai's lithium battery field, there are currently 47 enterprises above the designated size in the city, with an output value of 28.525 billion yuan in 2024, covering the whole industrial chain of lithium battery equipment, lithium battery key materials, and battery cell manufacturing, which can provide multi-dimensional support for battery development, such as technology migration, industrial chain collaboration, manufacturing experience and market channels.

The "Action Plan" proposes to support Zhuhai Guanyu (688772. SH), Zhuhai Xinjie Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhuhai Xinjie"), high-energy times and other local enterprises give full play to their own advantages, integrate upstream and downstream enterprises, R&D institutions and other resources, and play a leading role.

The Southern Finance and Economics all-media reporter paid attention to the fact that the three key companies directly "named" in the "Action Plan" have their own focus on the solid-state battery technology route.

Zhuhai Guanyu is a traditional lithium battery leader that grew up in Zhuhai, and has advantages in the field of polymer pouch batteries, especially in fast charging and low-temperature discharge. Relying on the support of the key R&D plan of Guangdong Province, its solid-state battery research and development focuses on oxide solid-state electrolyte systems, and has developed suitable special cathode materials, successfully increasing the energy density to 350Wh/kg.

At present, Zhuhai Guanyu has technically completed breakthroughs in the fields of solid-state battery cathode-electrolyte interface compatibility, solid-state electrolyte membrane with high ionic conductivity, and developed solid-state battery samples suitable for high-end scenario applications.

Xinjie, another "upstart" company with electric cells, will take the lead in building the country's first 200MWh lithium metal solid-state battery production line in Zhuhai in 2023, and signed a strategic cooperation agreement with EHang. At the end of last year, Xinjie increased the energy density of the monomer to 480Wh/kg, accelerating the performance process of eVTOL, drones, and consumer electronics, showing strong industrialization potential.

The third "named" company, Zhuhai High Energy Times, will accelerate its industrialization process in 2024 and has built the first mass production test line in China, which can achieve ultra-high energy density and extreme temperature operation, and has been verified by leading customers in many fields.

Solid-state batteries are divided into three fields: consumer electronics batteries, power batteries, and energy storage batteries, and the above three companies are mainly distributed in the first two fields, while energy storage batteries are the first to break the situation in Zhuhai.

On March 27, the square 314Ah Zhuhai Weilan semi-solid-state battery production line developed by Haisida and Weilan New Energy was officially put into operation in the production base of Fushan New Energy, indicating that Guangdong has achieved a major breakthrough in the field of new energy storage and opened the prelude to the "semi-solid era" of secondary batteries. According to the plan, the base has completed the construction of an automated battery production line, with an annual production capacity of 6GWh, which will promote Zhuhai and even Guangdong to form a significant competitive advantage in the pattern of the new energy storage industry.

Xu Xiaoxiong, a professor at the Solid-State Battery Materials and Devices Research Center of Southern University of Science and Technology, said in an interview with a reporter from Southern Finance and Economics that the market is currently the most active in the research and development of solid-state batteries for new energy vehicles, and the shipment of power batteries is about 5 times that of energy storage batteries. However, from the perspective of the future increment of the market, the current demand for new energy vehicles in China is still climbing, and there may be 3 times the incremental space in the future, and the growth space in the field of energy storage batteries may reach 5 times, he believes that Zhuhai still has a lot of potential to tap in this regard.

At present, lithium carbon cobalt oxide is the positive electrode and carbon is the negative electrode for battery mobile phones; The energy storage battery is basically lithium iron phosphate as the positive electrode and carbon as the negative electrode; The power battery is mainly a ternary material or lithium iron as the positive electrode, and carbon or silicon carbon as the negative electrode. Xu Xiaoxiong explained: "For solid-state batteries in different fields, the materials will be different, and the processes will also be different, so it is necessary to fully understand the complexity and challenges of solid-state battery development. ”

Chain layout

If the numbers 1 to 10 are used to represent the technology and manufacturing maturity of solid-state batteries, Xu Xiaoxiong believes that the current hybrid solid-state batteries are at the level of "7 to 8", semi-solid-state batteries are moving towards the level of "8", and all-solid-state batteries are now in the stage of "4".

The race for solid-state batteries has reached the sprint stage. Looking back at the development trajectory of the new energy vehicle industry, the maturity of the industrial chain and large-scale production will also be an important decisive factor for the urban layout of the solid-state battery industry.

At present, liquid lithium-ion batteries are widely used in the industry, and the main change in solid-state batteries is to replace liquid electrolytes with solid-state electrolytes, which can be matched with positive and negative electrode materials with higher energy density to achieve higher mileage.

In terms of materials, the improvement of energy density of solid-state batteries mainly depends on the positive and negative electrode materials, and the current liquid lithium battery uses graphite as the anode material, and the industry is generally optimistic about the silicon carbon anode and lithium metal anode. In terms of production process, solid-state batteries also need to apply a new dry electrode production process.

These new directions will bring new hope for the reshaping of the industry pattern and bring new logic to the city's industrial layout.

Taking Zhuhai as an example, the Action Plan proposes to establish a solid-state battery industry system with solid-state battery manufacturing as the core and solid-state battery upstream production equipment and materials as the two wings, diversify the development of supporting industries, expand downstream application scenarios, and cultivate Zhuhai's solid-state battery ecosystem.

In terms of the new energy storage industry, Zhuhai focuses on relying on the foundation of the lithium battery industry to develop electrochemical energy storage based on lithium batteries. At the same time, relying on the advantages of the port and the chemical industry park of Zhuhai Economic and Technological Development Zone, Zhuhai has integrated the resources of the mine, and started to lay out a series of lithium battery materials from spodumene to lithium carbonate, iron phosphate, lithium hydroxide, lithium iron phosphate, to electrolyte, separator, aluminum-plastic film, extending to lithium battery manufacturing, lithium battery equipment, energy storage integrated application and other fields, becoming one of the regions with strong regional competitive advantages.

At the seminar, a representative of Shenzhen new material enterprises said that they are optimistic about the upstream and downstream industrial chain and supporting facilities of Zhuhai solid-state batteries, especially a group of enterprises gathered in the electronic chemicals industrial park in Zhuhai Economic and Technological Development Zone, and are currently considering cooperation with upstream material supply enterprises in the zone.

Xu Xiaoxiong believes that there are many market segments and opportunities in the upstream and downstream of the solid-state battery field, such as batteries, equipment, key materials, certification bodies, etc., and if Zhuhai can make breakthroughs in these aspects, it can also reap a new round of industrial science and technology dividends.

The research and development of AI-enabled catalytic solid-state batteries is also an aspect of concern for enterprises and scientific research institutions.

Sun Li, general manager of Shenzhen Xinjie Energy Technology Co., Ltd., told the Southern Finance and Economics all-media reporter that Xinjie has been using AI to assist R&D before, and with the outbreak and maturity of AI large models, it will continue to increase the ability to assist R&D management through AI in the future.

"The 'hexagonal warrior' in solid-state battery materials has not yet appeared, and the industry is currently showing excitement about the use of large AI models for experiments." Xu Xiaoxiong also said, "AI does play a good role in the discovery of new battery materials and the acceleration of research and development, although the AI model is not yet competent for battery research and development design, but with the solution of the vertical model of the solid-state battery industry, I believe that the next 2~3 years may see some effects." ”

In terms of creating solid-state battery application scenarios, Zhuhai also considers. Previously, Zhuhai has issued the "Zhuhai Three-Year Action Plan for Building and Open Innovation Application Scenarios (2024-2026)", which fully opens up urban and industrial application scenarios, and promotes the application of semi-solid-state energy storage batteries in AI data centers through the application of "cloud smart city", artificial intelligence and other scenarios, creating a benchmark case of data center energy storage safety breakthrough.

Sun Li believes that Zhuhai's "Cloud Smart City" has created an exemplary large-scale application scenario for enterprises, with both robots and drones, which is very friendly to solid-state battery companies.

Su Hu, deputy mayor of Zhuhai, said that Zhuhai will give full play to the advantages of the scene, combined with the construction of "cloud smart city", open more application scenarios in the fields of energy storage, embodied intelligence, low-altitude aircraft, consumer electronics, etc., and promote the innovation and industrialization of solid-state battery technology.