Gasgoo Munich- on Oct. 27, CATL addressed investor queries on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's interactive platform regarding the progress of its Hefei sulfide solid-state pilot base. The battery giant remains firmly committed to all-solid-state technology — which it describes as industry-leading — and expects small-scale production by 2027. That timeline tracks with earlier disclosures: small-scale trial production in 2027, followed by mass production around 2030.
Image credit: CATL
On the technology front, CATL is betting heavily on the sulfide route. It has built a 10Ah-level verification platform and moved its sulfide solid-state battery into 20Ah sample prototyping, targeting an energy density of roughly 500Wh/kg. The company's 2025 annual report shows R&D spending of 22.147 billion yuan — a 19.02% annual jump — with the solid-state R&D team swelling to over 1,000 people. Even so, Chairman Zeng Yuqun struck a cautious note at the Summer Davos Forum. If technology maturity is scored on a 1-to-9 scale, he said, solid-state batteries are currently only at level 4. Commercialization still faces steep engineering and cost hurdles.
CATL isn't alone in eyeing 2027. Samsung SDI has pegged its mass-production target for the second half of that year, while Toyota's sulfide-route preparations point to the same window. BYD, for its part, has explicitly targeted 2027 for small-scale output. With top players from China, Japan, and South Korea converging on the same rollout timeline, the engineering race for next-generation battery technology has entered a critical phase.
