BYD Moves Closer To Solid-State EVs With 2027 Battery Launch Plan

Solid-state batteries have been the next big thing in EVs for what feels like forever, but getting them ready for mass production has proven to be a long and complicated process. One of the biggest players, BYD, now says it’ll start rolling out solid-state batteries in 2027, with wider adoption planned from 2030 onward.

Speaking at a battery industry forum in China, BYD’s CTO of Lithium Battery, Sun Huajun, confirmed that the company’s solid-state tech will use sulfide electrolytes. He didn’t get into specifics about energy density, but BYD has already started pilot production of 20 Ah and 60 Ah solid-state cells, meaning things are moving along.

At first, these new batteries will be used in BYD’s mid-range and premium EVs. As manufacturing costs drop, they’ll trickle down to more affordable models sometime between 2030 and 2032, according to reports from CarNewsChina. Eventually, BYD expects solid-state batteries to cost about the same as current lithium-ion packs, making them a real alternative across its lineup.

That doesn’t mean traditional battery tech is going away anytime soon. BYD’s chief scientist, Lian Yubo, made it clear that lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries will still be around for at least the next 15 to 20 years, especially for budget-friendly EVs.

BYD isn’t the only Chinese automaker working on solid-state batteries. Chery, for example, already has prototypes with an energy density of 400 Wh/kg and wants to push that to 500 Wh/kg. If they pull it off, that could mean up to 932 miles of range on a single charge. Chery plans to start putting these batteries in cars by 2026, with large-scale production following in 2027.