Game changing battery one step closer

Chinese giant Dongfeng, which has joint-venture projects with Nissan and Honda, has announced it is entering late-stage trials for a new solid state battery, which it predicts will be in a production car by 2027.

The brand says its new battery will grant electric cars a range of 1000 kilometres, and has established a limited production line for its new technology.

Read more about

• Solve EV issues with a single stroke: Toyota's big claim about solid state batteries that could be a game changer for electric cars such as the bZ4X and future electric Toyota LandCruiser 4WD and HiLux ute
• EV breakthrough may already be a flop: Why MG and IM Motors' semi-solid-state electric car batteries are not living up to the grand expectations
• Electric car disaster! Why the much hyped solid-state battery might not cure all electric car problems and why it won't find its way into affordable EVs such as the 2026 Tesla Model Y, BYD Sealion 7 and Kia EV5

The brand’s latest testing was for batteries with a 350Wh/kg density (current battery technology ranges from 180 - 300Wh/kg) in extreme cold, and the brand claims its testing sees the batteries maintain 72 per cent of their energy capacity at temperatures as high as 170 degrees celsius.

Its next round of testing will see the batteries subjected to real-world conditions in the far north of China in temperatures as low as -40 degrees.

The brand is aiming energy densities as high as 500Wh/kg, which would make them twice as dense as some EV batteries currently on the market. It also showcased an ultra fast charging 1200-volt electric platform concept, which is said to add 2.5km of range when charging every second.

This will require a 2MW charger, which is unbelievable in Australia but much closer to reality in the Chinese domestic market where 1MW chargers already exist.

Currently the fastest EV chargers in Australia are around 350kW, and even these are limited by high costs to install and rely on the local power grid being able to support such outputs.

Dongfeng plans to put these new solid-state batteries in pre-production cars before the end of 2026, with a production run expected by 2027.

The batteries are likely to debut in a vehicle from Dongfeng’s Yipai brand (styled eπ). The passenger sedans from the brand share their Tianyan platform with the Nissan N7, which has shot to relative popularity for the brand in its Chinese home market.

Nissan also partners with Dongfeng to make the NX8 large SUV and the much-hyped Frontier Pro dual-cab plug-in hybrid ute, which many see as Nissan’s potential answer to the BYD Shark 6.

Dongfeng is not the only brand that claims to be close to cracking the solid state battery code. MG is fitting semi-solid state batteries in its IM luxury cars and even its upcoming re-worked MG4. The brand has said the tech isn’t set for an Australian launch imminently, as it was still a work in progress for markets outside of China.

China-based CATL is the world's biggest electric car battery maker and only expects to have small scale production of solid state batteries in 2027. It told Chinese media late in 2025 that large scale production is still as far away as 2030.

Even Toyota is working on solid state, which it says will solve a lot of electric car problems in “a single stroke”. The Japanese giant has cast doubt on whether the technology will eventuate in the way we expect, with the brand’s Executive Vice President Hiroki Nakajima saying “development is always unpredictable. Franky, there’s no telling if it will work out or not”.

Toyota’s aim was to have solid state technology in cars by 2027, while its rivals over in Europe have also been making progress, with prototypes being tested in some vehicles in the BMW and Mercedes-Benz line-ups.