Sichuan's power battery sector achieved a remarkable leap, rising from sixth place nationally to first in just five years. At the 2026 World Power Battery Conference held in Yibin on September 3rd, the Equipment Industry Development Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology unveiled the Power Battery Industry Development Index (2026). In the provincial rankings, Sichuan's comprehensive score advanced from sixth in 2022 and third in 2025 to claim the top position in 2026, with Jiangsu, Fujian, Anhui, and Hubei following in the second through fifth spots respectively. Among the sub-indicators, Sichuan's standout strength lies in the completeness of its power battery industrial chain.
However, just before the conference commenced, Zeng Jiming, spokesperson and deputy director of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology, offered a candid assessment of the sector, noting that a "large scale" does not automatically equate to "high value." He emphasized that expanding requires strengthening, and increasing volume demands higher quality. Echoing this sentiment, Liu Yong, deputy mayor of Yibin, revealed that the city is accelerating its deployment in emerging sectors like solid-state batteries and new energy storage to cultivate a "second growth curve."
The juxtaposition of achieving the nation's top industrial index while proactively seeking new growth avenues highlights a fundamental shift in the competitive dynamics of the power battery industry. So, what propelled Sichuan to the forefront? Scale remains a critical foundation for the province's power battery sector. Public data shows that in 2025, Sichuan's power battery output reached 256 gigawatt-hours, with total industry chain revenue surpassing 200 billion yuan. The province is home to over 200 power battery-related enterprises, and half of the world's top ten power battery installers by global capacity have established operations there.
The latest index evaluates regional development across multiple dimensions, including industry scale, innovation capability, chain completeness, and sustainability. Interestingly, Sichuan's advantage is not solely in production volume. While Jiangsu and Fujian still outpace Sichuan in the industry scale category, Sichuan's edge is more pronounced in the completeness of its industrial chain. Furthermore, in terms of sustainable development, Guangdong, Fujian, and Sichuan lead the rankings. The index highlights Sichuan's abundant green electricity resources and relatively low carbon emission factors for power, which is a significant part of the logic behind its ascent.
This shift in ranking reflects a broader transformation: regional competition in the power battery sector is moving beyond merely comparing "how much can be produced" to encompass a wider array of factors including raw materials, manufacturing, supporting industries, energy structure, and even recycling capabilities. On a national level, this pivot is grounded in a practical reality. In 2025, China's power battery installations reached 769.7 gigawatt-hours, a 40.4% year-on-year increase, representing 64.8% of the global total. Meanwhile, the top ten domestic power battery enterprises accounted for 94.18% of all installations. While the market continues to expand, industry concentration is already at a high level.
The regulatory environment is also increasingly focused on standardizing competitive practices. In January, four government departments, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, pointed out issues like blind construction and low-price competition in the power and energy storage battery sectors, advocating for a robust capacity monitoring and tiered warning system. By April, these departments reiterated the need for ongoing capacity early warning controls, regulation of price competition, and enhanced product quality supervision. At the conference on September 3rd, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology Xiong Jijun also pledged to strengthen industry operation monitoring and dynamic capacity warnings to curb low-price and blind expansion behaviors, while accelerating the formulation of standards for safety performance, cycle life, carbon footprint, and recycling.
As the primary hub for Sichuan's power battery industry, Yibin's role is substantial. In 2025, the city produced 176 gigawatt-hours of power batteries, with its industrial chain scale reaching 125 billion yuan. Based on Sichuan's total output of 256 gigawatt-hours that year, Yibin alone accounted for nearly 70% of the province's production. With new capacity additions no longer directly translating into enhanced competitiveness, Yibin, as the main engine of the province's industry, is strategically adjusting its developmental focus.
From "Manufacturing Batteries" to "Expanding Applications": Yibin's Search for New Demand
In Yibin's future blueprint, solid-state batteries are being prioritized. Liu Yong has noted that the city currently leverages seven high-level solid-state battery R&D platforms, including the Ouyang Minggao Academician Workstation and the Intelligent Solid-State Battery Innovation Center, to advance parallel technical routes involving sulfides, polymers, and oxides. Plans are also underway to build the province's first two-square-kilometer solid-state battery innovation industrial park, which will host R&D testing, pilot production, cell manufacturing, and new material supporting facilities. Efforts are being made to facilitate vehicle installation validation with automakers like Chery, Changan, and Seres.
This strategic direction mirrors the evolving technological landscape of the industry. During the conference, Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, remarked that high-specific-energy batteries will continue to improve energy density, with the technology path progressing from liquid lithium-ion batteries to solid-liquid hybrid and eventually all-solid-state batteries. He also noted that low-cost, long-life lithium iron phosphate and sodium-ion batteries remain another crucial technical avenue. Among the eight innovative power battery technologies released on the same day, a high-specific-energy hybrid solid-liquid battery technology has already achieved mass production with an energy density of 350 Wh/kg.
However, beyond new technologies, Yibin is also striving to be a first-mover in deploying new power battery applications. Public data indicates that as of August 20th, Yibin has constructed 19 new energy storage projects with a total installed capacity of 926 MWh. The city has also built 19 heavy-duty truck battery swap stations, facilitating 165,000 swaps, and boasts 3,101 new energy heavy-duty trucks. Additionally, 15 green ships are either built or under construction. In the first half of 2026, routine low-altitude economy operations in the area surpassed 2,500 hours, and in the embodied intelligence sector, 270 application scenarios have been released, attracting 28 key projects.
These figures signify an extension of the industry's development trajectory. By moving beyond the traditional primary application of new energy vehicles, Yibin is cultivating new demand for power battery technology through scenarios like energy storage, heavy-duty trucks, ships, drones, and robots. Liu Yong characterizes this approach as "promoting production through use and integrating production with application." In his view, application scenarios have become a decisive variable in determining an industry's capabilities and competitive position.
From "Made in Yibin" to the Global Supply Chain
The selection of Spain as the guest of honor country at this year's World Power Battery Conference adds a global dimension to the discussions. Spanish Ambassador to China, Marta Betanzos Roig, cited the partnership between Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL) and Stellantis as a prime example during the opening ceremony. She detailed their ongoing construction of a superfactory in Figueruelas, Zaragoza, Spain, with an announced investment of 4.1 billion euros. The facility's annual capacity is designed to meet the battery needs of approximately one million vehicles. Ambassador Betanzos specifically expressed a desire for the industrial ties between Yibin and Zaragoza to extend further into supplier networks, engineering expertise, technical institutions, and talent development. Notably, she also emphasized that Chinese enterprises' industrial footprint in Spain should transcend mere assembly, advocating for the development of local supply chains, R&D teams, safety certification laboratories, and battery recycling initiatives.
This perspective underscores a growing reality: a power battery company's global competitiveness is increasingly difficult to gauge solely through domestic production figures. Zeng Yuqun, chairman of CATL, summarized the company's "Ningde quality" as a commitment to "safety, reliability, and longevity." He pointed out that in large-scale production, even minuscule probability issues can become magnified with higher delivery volumes, making manufacturing consistency and long-term reliability critical components of quality control.
Over the past few years, Yibin has rapidly formed a power battery cluster anchored by leading enterprises. Now, as industry governance tightens the space for pure low-price and capacity expansion competition, as new demand emerges in areas like solid-state batteries, energy storage, and robotics, and as carbon footprint, recycling, and overseas localization become essential evaluation criteria, Yibin must confront a new set of questions. The challenge ahead is to transform its established scale advantages into new value by effectively integrating technological iteration, application demand, green energy advantages, and global cooperation.
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