China Builds World’s Largest and Most Complete Power Battery Industrial System

Dragon Media News Desk

China has built the world’s largest and most complete power battery industrial system after more than two decades of sustained efforts, maintaining a leading position in technology while ranking first globally in production and sales for years.

Wan Gang, honorary president of the China Association for Science and Technology, made the remarks on Thursday at the opening of the 2026 World Power Battery Conference in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province.

Wan said that despite China’s global leadership in the power battery sector, the industry continues to face significant challenges. Internationally, battery supply chains are becoming increasingly regionalised and localised. Domestically, gaps remain in several core technologies, while greater efforts are needed in forward-looking and cutting-edge research. Technological bottlenecks also persist in the recycling and reuse of retired batteries.

Regarding the next stage of power battery development, Wan called for stronger research and innovation in new battery materials, particularly next-generation high-capacity cathode and anode materials and highly stable electrolytes.

He urged deeper research, development and industrial application of all-solid-state batteries. He also called for faster development and large-scale deployment of hybrid solid-liquid batteries, continued improvement of conventional liquid batteries, and stronger support for emerging technologies such as sodium-ion batteries.

Wan also highlighted the need to accelerate the implementation and improvement of a digital identification system for power batteries. Digital technologies, he said, should be used to strengthen supervision throughout the entire lifecycle of batteries, from production and sales to use and recycling.

Connecting data across different stages of the battery lifecycle would help prevent retired batteries from entering unregulated recycling channels and improve the efficiency and transparency of battery recycling, he said.

On the international expansion of Chinese battery companies, Wan said enterprises should carefully plan the pace and approach of overseas development. He stressed the importance of strengthening overseas compliance systems for green and low-carbon businesses and improving after-sales service networks.

Chinese companies should also deepen joint ventures and cooperation with overseas automakers and battery manufacturers, he said.

China already holds a dominant position in the global battery industry. According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China accounts for more than 70 percent of global production of new-energy vehicles, power batteries and key battery materials.

Earlier ministry data also showed that China supplies approximately 70 percent of the world’s battery materials and around 60 percent of batteries.

All-solid-state batteries have been identified as a major priority for the next stage of China’s new-energy vehicle industry. At a ministerial meeting in January, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology called for faster breakthroughs in all-solid-state batteries and advanced autonomous driving technologies to strengthen the resilience and competitiveness of industrial and supply chains.

China has also issued a technical specification for solid electrolytes used in solid-state batteries for electric vehicles, further advancing standardisation and laying the groundwork for the industrial development of next-generation battery technologies.

Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, said China has already established the world’s largest battery industrial system, but considerable room remains to expand production scale and further reduce costs to meet the country’s energy transition and energy security requirements.

According to Lin, the combined development of wind power, solar power, energy storage and electric vehicles represents an important pathway for China’s low-carbon transition and energy security.

One of the main constraints on further expansion of wind and solar power, Lin said, is the electricity grid’s limited ability to absorb and manage renewable energy, while energy storage remains relatively expensive.

As storage technologies improve and economies of scale reduce costs, more renewable electricity can be integrated into the power system, creating greater opportunities for the expansion of wind and solar energy.

Lin said a stronger power battery industry would also accelerate the development of electric vehicles, reducing petroleum consumption and lowering China’s dependence on imported crude oil.

The development model combining wind power, solar energy, energy storage and electric vehicles has already proved viable from both technological and economic perspectives, he said.