Solid-state batteries directly confront safety challenges, with Gotion High-Tech overcoming mass production bottlenecks. The most difficult time to present solid-state batteries in a favorable light is when they begin to approach mass production. In the laboratory, solid-state batteries can prove their worth with parameters: energy density, safety tests, fast-charging rates, cycle life—all are clear numbers. However, upon entering production lines and customer validation, issues become trivial: dust, burrs, gas generation, uneven thermal fields, consistency loss, false alarms, and the extensive test lists provided by automakers. On May 17, at the 2026 Global Technology Conference, Gotion High-Tech unveiled seven new products, including the second-generation G-Cell smart battery and the Jinshi all-solid-state battery. The former follows a semi-solid (solid-liquid hybrid) route, based on ternary, silicon-carbon anodes, and a new oxide solid-state electrolyte, enabling "500 km range replenishment in 9 minutes and a full-charge range exceeding 1,000 km," with 10 GWh of production capacity locked for delivery this year. The latter pushes energy density to 400 Wh/kg, with a 2 GWh cell production line underway and customer sampling initiated. At the launch, Gotion High-Tech's Chief Scientist Zhu Xingbao first posed two questions: Are solid-state batteries truly safe? Are they absolutely safe? His answers were affirmative and negative, respectively. In principle, solid-state technology can push the safety trigger boundary further out. However, once a high-energy-density cell is triggered under extreme conditions, the energy released remains substantial. Simultaneously, the intricate details constraining yield rates during manufacturing do not automatically vanish just because the battery becomes more solid. Honesty and restraint also prevented Gotion's launch from sliding into the grand narratives common at solid-state battery presentations. The closer solid-state batteries get to the market, the more they must face manufacturing itself: consistency, yield, sensing, early warning, cost, and the lengthy responsibility cycle after the battery is installed in a vehicle.
First Pass Customer Hurdles, Then Discuss Mass Production Gotion launched the first-generation G-Cell quasi-solid-state battery in May last year. Releasing the G-Cell smart battery this year and announcing its priority installation in high-end pure electric vehicles (B-segment and above) by year-end, the intervening period was not merely a simple product iteration. Zhu Xingbao revealed in a post-event interview that over the past year, Gotion engaged with nearly 40 domestic and international customers, completing national standard testing and certification from cells to packs. Different automakers have their own test items; Gotion conducted retests according to customer requirements, with some companies' overall cell tests exceeding 1,000 items. Currently, seven or eight companies are conducting on-vehicle testing. This information determines how "mass production this year" should be understood. It is not a direct leap from launch to large-scale vehicle installation but follows a rigorous path of certification, sampling, customer testing, on-vehicle testing, and scenario matching, ultimately entering the delivery phase for specific customers and specific scenarios. The practical flexibility of the semi-solid route also lies in its adjustability. Zhu Xingbao mentioned that automakers currently do not lower their requirements for solid-state batteries. Often, the sampling products already achieve 2C to 3C rates, but automakers still hope for 4C—in liquid battery systems, 4C fast charging is already standard for many models, with higher-rate products emerging. Safety, cycle life, rate capability, and cost must still be balanced for each aspect. The semi-solid route can match the indicator requirements of different scenarios by adjusting the degree of solidification, electrolyte content, and polymerization system. This also explains why solid-state batteries will not rapidly proliferate in a single form. Passenger cars, commercial vehicles, energy storage, low-altitude aircraft, drones, and robots have different battery requirements. Plug-in hybrid models and robots hope to pack more capacity into limited space; commercial vehicles focus on whether increased range can reduce refueling frequency and lower transportation time costs; energy storage cells are growing in capacity, demanding higher safety margins; low-altitude and drone scenarios are more sensitive to high specific energy. Gotion's cost perspective is also restrained. The company did not disclose commercial costs, only stating that from a material standpoint, the cost increase for semi-solid batteries compared to liquid batteries can be controlled at about 10% to 15%, which is acceptable for some mid-to-high-end customers. This is not the complete cost answer. Material cost is only part of the battery cost; true commercialization also depends on manufacturing yield, production line depreciation, pack integration, testing certification, and after-sales responsibility. This reflects that Gotion has consistently sought entry points for solid-state batteries in scenarios that can bear a premium. However, regardless of the targeted segment, safety remains the first and sharpest question posed by customers. How safe are solid-state batteries, really?
The Myth and Reality of Safety Are solid-state batteries safer? Gotion's answer is clear. Over the past year, Gotion collaborated with the University of Science and Technology of China and Tsinghua University to systematically compare the first-generation G-Cell quasi-solid-state battery with liquid batteries of the same system, covering cathode and anode materials, separators, electrolytes, gels, electrical performance tests, and exhaust gas recovery analysis. Data shows that with solid-state technology, the safety of high-energy-density batteries has indeed improved to varying degrees. As electrolyte content continues to decrease and solidification increases, the safety boundary of this semi-solid route can be further extended. But he immediately added: solid-state batteries are not absolutely safe. Safety has never been solely a function of the material system; batteries must pass through the manufacturing process—dust, magnetic substances, metal particles, and burrs can all be introduced during this process, and offline inspection cannot guarantee 100% screening of all problematic cells. This is closer to the real logic of the mass production site than "no fire during nail penetration." The safety improvement of solid-state batteries essentially manifests as pushing the thermal runaway trigger boundary further away, making the battery less likely to enter an irreversible violent reaction under impact, nail penetration, or thermal shock, but it does not erase the immense energy carried by high-energy-density cells themselves. The higher the energy density, the greater the energy released in the event of extreme failure. The material system can only solve part of the safety problem; manufacturing defects and operational anomalies require new processes as a backstop.
The Hidden Difficulties of Semi-Solid The semi-solid route may seem closer to industrialization than all-solid-state, but it is not simple. Zhu Xingbao recalled that when he worked on semi-solid batteries in academia, there were no significant issues with small or large battery experiments, but upon entering the industry, he found that real difficulties emerged after product scaling. The crux lies in gel curing. Laboratory batteries are small, heat more evenly, and have fast heat transfer. However, 200 Ah-class large cells are different; the thermal field transfers from the outside in, with the outer gel curing first while the interior remains uncured. The curing process itself generates gas; after the exterior seals, internal gas is difficult to expel, affecting yield, consistency, and subsequent grouping. Such issues do not appear on launch parameter sheets but determine whether a product can be mass-produced. To address gas generation, uniformity, consistency, and whether re-curing occurs during operation, Gotion redesigned the gel curing path. Zhu Xingbao mentioned that Gotion did not perform a single curing but three: external curing, internal curing, and internal adjustment. Simultaneously, the battery interior cannot be completely hardened because high-energy-density systems experience expansion and contraction, requiring flexibility retention; otherwise, issues similar to interface detachment in all-solid-state batteries arise. This revelation perhaps carries more weight than the declaration of "semi-solid mass production this year." It indicates that the industrialization of solid-state batteries is not about scaling up laboratory formulas proportionally but about retaming thermal fields, gas generation, uniformity, flexibility, interfaces, and yield during the scaling process. Bottlenecks and solutions have simultaneously extended from material performance to the manufacturing process.
Smart Batteries as a Supplement to Manufacturing Uncertainty The G-Cell smart battery is most easily described as "battery plus chip." But in reality, what Gotion truly aims to solve is not marketing-driven intelligence but how to detect anomalies early after high-energy-density batteries enter large-scale manufacturing. Traditional BMS primarily monitors temperature and voltage. This time, Gotion incorporated a smart chip, multi-modal sensors, and in-situ EIS into the G-Cell smart battery, extracting mechanical, optical, electromagnetic, and thermal signals, transmitting them wirelessly to the cloud for computation to assess battery health status. Traditional BMS can monitor single-digit indicators, while the G-Cell smart battery can monitor 33 indicators. This design relates to the high-energy-density system. High-energy-density batteries require more use of silicon-based anodes. Traditional liquid batteries have smaller volume changes during charge/discharge, while silicon-carbon volume expansion can reach 300%. This means batteries need "breathing space" and monitoring of internal mechanical changes. The introduction of mechanical sensors was initially to determine whether internal battery expansion and contraction were abnormal. But this system itself has challenges. Placing sensors in the battery is not difficult; the difficulty lies in whether they can match the battery's lifespan and reliability. Thin-film sensors may fail after several compressions; EIS can, in principle, parse information such as internal resistance, side reactions, and SEI film changes, but lifespan and accuracy still need evaluation; if the early warning system frequently gives false alarms, users and automakers will not accept it either. Therefore, the key to the G-Cell smart battery is not the "33 indicators" themselves but whether Gotion, based on mature data and experience, can prove which of these indicators are truly necessary, which can operate stably, and which can early-identify the small fraction of abnormal cells deviating from the normal degradation curve. Zhu Xingbao pointed out that batteries degrading normally are not difficult to judge; the real danger lies in those that do not degrade according to normal patterns and suddenly fail. What Gotion and the smart battery aim to catch is this small subset of anomalies. This also touches on a less-discussed aspect of solid-state battery industrialization: battery safety cannot rely solely on materials but also on operational state monitoring and pre-accident warnings. Smart batteries further address post-service cell state monitoring.
The All-Solid-State Challenge Falls on Lithium Sulfide Compared to the G-Cell smart battery, the second-generation Jinshi all-solid-state battery corresponds to a longer-term and broader vision. Gotion disclosed that the energy density of the second-generation Jinshi all-solid-state battery has increased from 300 Wh/kg to 400 Wh/kg. According to new national standards, the battery's vacuum heating weight loss rate is 0.01%, below the 0.5% standard; the battery passes safety tests such as nail penetration and thermal chamber without fire or smoke. Currently, a 2 GWh cell mass production line is advancing, and customer sampling engagement has begun. But the real challenge for all-solid-state batteries is not only in the cells. Pan Ruijun, head of Jinshi all-solid-state battery R&D, broke down the cost issue to the material side: 70% to 80% of solid-state battery cost comes from the solid-state electrolyte, and 70% to 80% of solid-state electrolyte cost comes from lithium sulfide. Reducing costs for all-solid-state first requires conquering the mass production of lithium sulfide. Gotion's proposed solution is the gas-liquid-solid three-phase reaction method. Reportedly, this method involves solid particles surrounded by liquid particles, with fine droplets moving at high speed in gas, expanding contact area, shortening reaction time, increasing reaction efficiency by 300%, and reducing energy consumption and footprint. Gotion claims the lithium sulfide product from this process achieves 99.99% purity, with particle size below 3 μm. Corresponding capacity planning is a 300-ton/year production line by 2026, 20,000 tons by 2027, and 50,000 tons by 2030, supporting 150 GWh of solid-state battery demand. Solid-state electrolyte also has corresponding plans. Gotion released two types of products: microcrystalline electrolyte and nanocrystalline electrolyte. The former has a particle size of 1-5 μm, conductivity greater than 8 mS/cm; the latter has a particle size at the hundred-nanometer level, conductivity 4-6 mS/cm, with 60% reduced energy consumption. Electrolyte capacity planning is 2,000 tons/year by 2026, 10,000 tons by 2027, and 100,000 tons by 2030, supporting 100 GWh demand. Gotion clearly understands that the first half of the all-solid-state battery competition lies in the material side. Without large-scale supply of lithium sulfide and solid-state electrolyte, 400 Wh/kg remains merely an expensive sample. If semi-solid addresses how to enter the market in the near term, all-solid-state must solve how to bring costs down in the future.
Conclusion For Gotion, the weight of "mass production this year" lies in order conversion after repeated validation with nearly forty customers, in the production line rhythm of 200 Ah cell gel curing, and in whether the smart battery can accurately distinguish that one-in-ten-thousand abnormal signal from 33 monitoring indicators over countless charge/discharge cycles. The roadmap for all-solid-state depends on the actual rotation speed and cost curve of the lithium sulfide production line. The narrative focus of solid-state batteries is shifting from breakthroughs in chemical formulations to the infinite details of the manufacturing process. And when the industry finally acknowledges that the safety and lifespan of a high-energy-density battery are defined by every thermal field on the production line, every controlled speck of dust, and every expansion and contraction, solid-state batteries truly knock on the door of the commercial world.
Comments