Three Countries Just Cracked the Battery Problem. Now Comes the Hard Part.

Your phone battery holds about 250 watt-hours per kilogram. So does the one in a Tesla. That number hasn't changed much in a decade. In the last seven days, three separate teams from three countries blew past it — and they're not even using the same chemistry.

700 Wh/kg. Published in Nature.

On Thursday, a team led by Chen Jun at the Chinese Academy of Sciences published a paper in Nature describing a lithium-metal battery that hit 700 Wh/kg at room temperature. That's nearly triple what's inside your EV right now.

The trick was replacing oxygen atoms with fluorine ones in the electrolyte. The fluorinated hydrocarbon solvent improved ion conductivity at extreme energy densities — and did something nobody expected at the bottom of the temperature range. At -50°C, the battery still held nearly 400 Wh/kg. That's better than most current batteries perform at room temperature.

Chen's team isn't working in isolation. Earlier this month, they partnered with FAW Group's Hongqi brand to install a 500 Wh/kg lithium-rich manganese solid-liquid battery in an actual vehicle. Lu Tianjun, GM of China Automotive New Energy Battery Technology Co, said EVs with these batteries will exceed 1,000 km (620 miles) on a single charge. Mass production target: end of 2026.

"Conservatively, its performance would mean an improvement of about 50 percent compared with current technologies," Lu said.

745 miles on one charge. In a real car.

While Chinese scientists were publishing in Nature, a company in Massachusetts was signing manufacturing deals.

Factorial Energy — a solid-state battery startup — announced a partnership with Korea's Philenergy to scale production of its Solstice platform. The specs: up to 450 Wh/kg, stable at 90°C, and a dry-cathode process that cuts manufacturing steps compared to traditional lithium-ion.

Those are lab numbers. But here's the thing that makes Factorial different: they've already done the real-world test. Last September, Mercedes put 106 of Factorial's solid-state cells into a modified EQS sedan. It drove 745 miles — over 1,200 km — on a single charge. Mercedes called the batteries "a true gamechanger."

Stellantis (Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler) verified Factorial's cells in lab testing. Hyundai and Kia are partners. Karma Automotive plans to put Factorial cells in its Kaveya coupe by late 2027. Factorial is going public via a merger valued at $1.1 billion, with Nasdaq listing expected mid-2026 under the ticker FAC.

And then there's Ganfeng.

While those two were making headlines, the world's largest lithium metal producer quietly started mass-producing semi-solid-state batteries with an energy density of 650 Wh/kg.

Ganfeng Lithium — a Hyundai supplier — began production at its facilities in China on February 20. These aren't prototypes. They're rolling off production lines, headed for vehicles like the Seres SF5 and Dongfeng E70.

Three breakthroughs. Three approaches. One week.

Why this matters more than any single breakthrough

Battery announcements are a dime a dozen. Every month, someone claims a lab result that'll change everything. Most never leave the lab.

What's different about this week is the convergence. These aren't three versions of the same idea. They're three completely different paths to the same destination:

• China's 700 Wh/kg cell uses a novel fluorinated electrolyte with lithium metal. Lab stage, but published in Nature with peer review.
• Factorial's solid-state platform uses a dry-cathode architecture with no liquid electrolyte at all. Real-world tested, partnerships signed, going public.
• Ganfeng's semi-solid-state splits the difference — some liquid, some solid — and it's already in mass production.

The current lithium-ion standard sits at 244-296 Wh/kg (that's Tesla's 4680 cell range). Every one of these technologies at least doubles it. The Chinese lab result nearly triples it.

And they're not alone. Samsung SDI plans to mass-produce all-solid-state batteries this year. Toyota targets 2027-28 for solid-state cells in vehicles. Heyuan Lithium Innovation opened China's first dedicated solid-state battery mass production base in January.

The race isn't about technology anymore

Here's what most coverage misses. The hard part was never hitting high energy density in a lab. Scientists have been doing that for years. The hard part is making it cheap enough, reliable enough, and fast enough to manufacture at the scale the world's automakers need.

That's why Factorial's Philenergy deal matters more than Chen Jun's Nature paper — even though Chen's numbers are more impressive. Manufacturing partnerships are where battery breakthroughs go to either scale or die.

It's also why Ganfeng is the dark horse. Their 650 Wh/kg cells aren't the highest density. But they're the ones already in production. Already in cars. Already generating revenue.

The pattern repeats across every technology race: the best tech doesn't always win. The first tech to scale does.

What this means for you

If you're driving an EV, your range anxiety has an expiration date. The 300-mile ceiling that's defined electric vehicles for a decade is about to shatter. Multiple companies, using multiple approaches, are converging on 600+ miles per charge.

If you're not driving an EV, the calculus just changed. Range parity with gas cars — the thing skeptics said was years away — is arriving from multiple directions at once.

And if you're watching the US-China technology race, this week told the whole story in miniature. China is winning on raw research and speed to production. America is winning on partnerships and real-world validation. Both are solving the same problem. Neither is waiting for the other.

The lithium-ion battery defined the last 15 years of portable technology. This week, its replacements showed up — plural. The question isn't whether they'll take over. It's which one gets there first.