Svolt Energy has announced that its first batch of mass-produced 100-kWh Dragon Armor semi-solid fast-charging battery packs has rolled off the production line in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, advancing the technology’s commercialization.
The company announced the milestone on Weibo on Monday. In an accompanying video, chairman and CEO Yang Hongxin said the battery pack had secured nominations from multiple customers, with details of the vehicles using it to be revealed soon.
The new product uses a separator transfer-printing technology for its semi-solid cells, which the company says improves intrinsic battery safety while supporting fast charging and a long service life.
The pack features liquid cooling on both the top and bottom and supports 900-volt, 6C fast charging, allowing it to add 500 km (311 miles) of range in 12 minutes, Yang said.
Its underside features 6 layers of armor, providing impact resistance 3 times the level required by China’s national standard, according to Yang.
He added that high-speed stacking technology helps the battery achieve a cycle life exceeding 3,000 cycles and a theoretical lifetime driving distance of more than 1 million km.
These performance figures were disclosed by the company. The announcement did not specify the test conditions used for the range replenishment claim, the size of the first production batch or the names of customers.
Svolt sees semi-solid batteries as a competitive long-term option for battery electric vehicles, particularly those using ternary batteries, rather than merely a transitional step toward all-solid-state batteries.
“It will become a mainstream technology over the long term,” Yang said. The company will maintain its strategy of advancing semi-solid batteries first, followed by all-solid-state batteries.
Semi-solid batteries, also known as solid-liquid hybrid batteries, use both liquid and solid electrolytes to transport ions, while all-solid-state batteries rely entirely on solid electrolytes.
Svolt said in May that it planned to begin large-scale production of 100-kWh semi-solid batteries in September, with costs expected to be on par with conventional liquid-electrolyte lithium-ion batteries.
The company said at the time that all-solid-state batteries were still a long way from mass production, predicting that 2026 would mark the start of widespread adoption of semi-solid batteries.
Svolt was formerly the power battery division of GWM (HKEX: 2333) and became independent in February 2018. Its business spans battery materials, cells, packs and energy storage technology.
In the first 8 months of this year, Svolt’s global EV battery installations reached 22.0 GWh, up 39.3% year-on-year, ranking it ninth with a 2.6% market share, according to South Korean market researcher SNE Research.
In China, Svolt ranked tenth in power battery installations in September with a 1.97% share. In the ternary battery segment, it ranked fourth with a 6.31% share, according to the China Automotive Battery Innovation Alliance (CABIA).
This article was first published by Phate Zhang on CnEVPost, a website focusing on new energy vehicle news from China.
