First electric cars with a semi-solid state battery by the world's largest lithium producer launch in a taxi fleet

While the first electric cars with true solid-state batteries won't be arriving before 2025 or be mass produced before 2030, according to the world's largest battery maker CATL, the first EV with a semi-solid state battery is now a reality. Well, its maker calls the 50 DongFeng E70 electric cars it just delivered for a taxi fleet the first with a solid-state battery, but from what we grasped the energy pack is actually the solid-liquid hybrid battery that the world's biggest lithium producer by market cap Ganfeng Lithium teased back in December. Unlike current EV batteries, it sports a solid electrolyte diaphragm which is the reason that its makers call it a solid-state battery, but in reality it still has liquid components so a semi-solid state rephrasing would be more fitting.

Still, there is no denying that those ET5 and ET7 performance sedan versions with NIO's 150 kWh semi-solid state battery pack will be arriving much later than the DongFeng E70 that is available for test runs right now, so the pioneering claim holds water. While DongFeng doesn't mention any of its cars' battery specs like energy density or EV range, Ganfeng Lithium lists the packs on its website as having up to 210 Wh/kg energy density, and 0.33C charge/discharge rate, numbers that are not all that impressive. Ganfeng said this is its first generation of solid-state batteries, though, while the second one is expected to sport 360 Wh/kg energy density.

What's more impressive, however, is that the new semi-solid battery packs have passed the puncture and deformation, as well as the 180 degrees Celsius (365 degrees Fahrenheit) hot-box tests with flying colors, and that is the big promise this type of battery holds. The first 50 electric cars with semi-solid state batteries will be running demo service as taxis in several provinces, so it's just a matter of time to hear how the new battery packs will behave in real-world scenarios.

Get the ChargePoint Home Flex 50A EV Charger on Amazon