Battery Advances Ignite Automakers’ Tech Race（Sep 3）
"Eldest Son of the Republic" Densely Releases Fuel Cell and Solid-State Battery Progress — Headline Automakers' "Equipment Race" Escalates
Systematic applied technology breakthroughs for the future are becoming the baseline for automakers to compete in the market.
On September 1, reporters learned from China FAW that the company's self-developed new-generation fuel cell stack recently passed third-party testing and certification by the China Automotive Research New Energy Vehicle Inspection Center (Tianjin). Test results showed progress in three core indicators: volumetric power density, low-temperature cold start, and hydrogen utilization rate.
Addressing the industry pain point of slow hydrogen vehicle startup and insufficient operational stability in high-cold regions, the stack adopts a low-heat-capacity structural design paired with deep optimization of low-temperature control strategies. Under -40 degrees Celsius with no auxiliary heating, it can complete cold start within 180 seconds and ramp up to rated power with stable output.
"The new-generation fuel cell stack achieves a peak volumetric power density exceeding 9.5 kW/L (average voltage 0.6V), with rated volumetric power density exceeding 8 kW/L (average voltage 0.65V), covering multi-vehicle-type mounting requirements for both commercial and passenger vehicles," China FAW stated.
In the area of all-solid-state batteries, China FAW has also achieved a major technological breakthrough. Recently, China FAW, in collaboration with Eastern University of Technology, achieved a major breakthrough in the field of low-pressure operation of sulfide all-solid-state batteries. The related findings, titled "Ionic Elastomer Interface Enables Low-Pressure, High-Stability Solid-State Batteries," were published in the top international journal Advanced Energy Materials. This marks a significant step forward for China in the practical application of sulfide all-solid-state batteries.
"Chinese automakers are shifting from past single-technology breakthroughs to building systematic, institutionalized innovation capabilities spanning AI, three-electric systems, and whole-vehicle manufacturing." In the view of industry insiders, the sector is gradually returning to rationality: some companies are beginning to technologically update their older products; some are using self-developed technologies to systematically upgrade their entire product lineups; and most are no longer passively following industry trends but choosing to return to their strengths or shore up weaknesses based on their own needs. "Automotive manufacturing is returning to its essence as a technology-driven industry."
A research report by Sinolink Securities suggests that as the industry develops with higher quality, automakers that are leading in premium positioning, intelligence, and globalization are poised to capture structural opportunities.
Notably, against the backdrop of an overall decline in industry profits, R&D investment across the automotive manufacturing sector as a whole is growing against the trend. Wind data shows that in the first half of this year, six A-share listed companies had R&D investment exceeding 10 billion yuan, with BYD ranking first in R&D spending among A-share listed companies. Financial reports show that despite declines in both revenue and net profit in the first half, BYD maintained high R&D investment of 28.86 billion yuan.
This year, automaker press conferences have increasingly been "dominated" by technology. In the first half, BYD released multiple technological innovation achievements, including the second-generation Blade Battery and flash charging technology, achieving 10% to 70% charge in just 5 minutes, and mass-produced the self-developed 4nm-process smart driving chip "Xuanji A3." Geely brought cabin-vehicle integration technology, deeply integrating the Super Eva vehicle intelligent agent with the Qianli Haohan G-ASD smart driving system. Li Auto self-developed a 5nm chip, the Mahe.
"At the 2026 Annual Technology Conference on September 16, the company will introduce a smart assisted driving world model at the industry's first-tier level, along with multiple latest technological achievements in the three-electric field," the Leapmotor management stated at the 2026 interim results meeting. Currently, the company's urban navigation assisted driving has been opened across all ABCD series models, with plans to push nationwide urban navigation assisted driving to 3.0 architecture vehicles in the third quarter.
As a new central enterprise, Changan Automobile revealed that its self-developed high-level smart driving system, "Tianshu Linghang Ultra," will be officially released on September 4.
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