The electric car breakthrough we've all been waiting for: GWM is close to developing solid state batteries that would see its Ora electric car smash the BYD Dolphin, MG4 and Tesla Model Y

Australia’s cheapest electric car could soon have a game-changing battery.

GWM, which sells the Ora electric hatchback in Australia for $35,990 drive-away, has detailed its progress on solid state battery tech.

Solid state batteries are considered to be the silver bullet for mass electric car adoption and the benefits are massive.

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The potent cells are lighter, smaller, faster charging, more energy dense than current lithium-ion units and capable of delivering a claimed range of more than 1000km.

Solid state batteries are also claimed to be safer and less fire prone than current units.

This is achieved by using a solid electrolyte instead of a liquid or gel used in conventional units.

GWM revealed in its annual general meeting to shareholders that it can now make small capacity solid state batteries.

Website CarNewsChina said the batteries are well suited to electric cars but need to be scaled up.

Solid state batteries would extend the Ora's driving range dramatically.

Several Chinese carmakers are close to installing solid state batteries in their vehicles.

Chinese maker Nio has successfully completed a 1000km-plus trial of its Tesla Model S rivalling ET7 sedan.

This vehicle used “semi-solid” state batteries with a combination of liquid and solid electrolytes to hold energy.

The Nio ET7 used a monster 150kWh battery that weighed a miniscule 20kg more than the brand’s current 100kWh lithium-ion battery. 

IM Motors, another car brand from China, has fitted its L6 sedan with semi-solid-state batteries.

It claims these cells give it a driving range of more than 1000km per charge.

Toyota and Nissan are some of the other car makers working on the game-changing technology. Both are targeting 2027 and onwards for these batteries to land in production cars.

CarNewsChina also said that GWM’s ultra fast charging batteries will soon enter production.

It claims these batteries can add as much as 500km of range in 10 minutes, but there currently is no charging infrastructure that can dole out that much juice outside of China.