GWM gives details of solid state battery and other news at AGM

At today’s annual general meeting with shareholders Great Wall management discussed various aspects of the company’s progress. Most interesting is the news Great Wall has made working solid-state batteries, along with improvements in charging technology.

Great Wall now has the ability to produce small capacity solid state pouch cells. The key of course is for Great Wall to now scale this up economically into something that can be used in cars. Pouch cells use a flexible pouch shaped design which has a multilayered laminate structure which contain the anode, cathode and a separator. Pouches are sealed forming individual cells. Due to being lightweight and compact pouch cells are very suitable for use in electric vehicles.

Great Wall are investing in a number of different battery technologies including lithium iron phosphate, lithium manganese iron phosphate, cobalt-free, ternary, sodium-ion, and solid-state in order to meet different requirements such as cost, battery life and performance.

GWM joins a long list of Chinese companies making claims about solid state batteries. So far none have put such a battery into commercial use although both Nio and IM Motors are on the verge of releasing cars using semi-solid state batteries.

True solid state batteries are considered to be the holy grail of battery technology thanks to their high energy density, stability and by extension safety, and the ability to operate across a wide range of temperatures. In a normal battery there is a liquid electrolyte which carries the ions but in a solid state battery all parts are solid.

Current battery technology is rapidly reaching the upper limits of energy density. For liquid high-nickel ternary lithium-ion cells the upper limit is estimated to be 350-400 Wh/kg whereas for lithium manganese iron phosphate batteries it’s believed to be only 250 Wh/kg.

Great Wall has developed a 4C supercharging battery cell. This will likely enter production soon and it can add as much as 500 km range in 10 minutes. The company is also working on an ultra-fast charging 6C cell.

Li Ruifeng, the Chief Growth Officer of GWM, revealed that the Tank 800 would be unveiled by the end of the year. The Tank