The first move is to host more ion per gram of material. Silicon takes roughly ten times the lithium per gram that graphite does, and swells by up to 300% in the process, which cracks particles and rebuilds the surface film each cycle. Sulfur converts through dissolved polysulfide intermediates, so its capacity depends on keeping those intermediates inside a conductive scaffold. Iodine pushed into higher valences carries several electrons per atom instead of one. In sodium cells the energy sits in closed pores of hard carbon that fill at a low plateau, which is also where sodium plates when charging is pushed.
The charge time buyers compare comes from iron phosphate packs
2 / 8
CATL quotes its third-generation Shenxing iron-phosphate pack at 10% to near full in under seven minutes, holding over 90% of capacity after 1,000 fast cycles. BYD's second-generation Blade quotes 20% to 97% with a plan for 20,000 fast-charging stations by year end. Sunwoda put a 15C iron-phosphate pack on its roadmap, a number its own trade coverage flagged for caution.
Strategy
The areas with a line to fill are filed by companies
3 / 8
Lithium-ion carries roughly twice as many company documents as university and institute ones combined, and lead-acid with hybrid pack integration runs at a similar ratio. The names doing the filing are not only the headline cell makers. CATL leads overall, but Zhuhai Cosmx, Jiangsu Zhengli, Svolt, CALB, Liwei and Envision all sit near the top, alongside BASF-type materials suppliers and a Chinese Academy of Sciences layer.
Research
Charge rate is now bought from geometry and interface
4 / 8
The pattern holds outside lithium-ion. In sodium cells a pore-size-controlled hard carbon paired with a layered oxide reached 2.2 Ah and about 90% of capacity in ten minutes, holding roughly 90% after 1,500 cycles at 6C. In solid-state, sulfides already conduct about as well as the liquid they replace, so the work moved to making a dense film: sputtered 1 to 10 µm layers that are pore-free as deposited. A garnet interface engineered with a thin gold layer charges at up to 2.5 mA/cm² at 0.7 MPa of stack pressure, and a bromide electrolyte reached 1.4 mS/cm and cycled 6,000 times at 10C.
Market
What a buyer can purchase, and the claim standing beside it
5 / 8
Set what has reached a product beside what the same period's papers and patents claim, and the gap is consistent across the whole radar.
Strategy
Sodium-ion is the anomaly: a product in the showroom and a thin company file
6 / 8
Sodium has a passenger car in production and a 60 GWh storage agreement signed, yet university and institute documents still outnumber company ones. Its parameter filings are recent and specify porosity, particle size, coating weight and capacity ratios to manufacturing tolerance. The filers are mostly manufacturers entering from elsewhere, including lead-acid and solar firms rather than battery specialists.
Research
The measurements do not yet separate the areas
7 / 8
What limits these designs now is making them repeatably, and what hides the cost of that is how they are reported. A 2026 review of solid-state scale-up finds coin cells passing 2,000 cycles at 2C while pouch cells above 50 Ah fall below 500. Most rate results also come from electrodes thinner than a practical cell needs, at 0.5 to 1.5 mg per square centimetre against the 3 to 6 a production electrode carries, which flatters them.
Market
Energy density is what got signed, and the seller now publishes a cycle life
8 / 8
Group14's five offtakes carry minimum commitments above US$300 million. Nexeon supplies Panasonic's Kansas plant. Sila supplies Mercedes-Benz, with the G-Class as the named vehicle.
A lithium-boron-sulfur electrolyte that lasts on lithium metal where a commercial one shorts
The problem. Sulfide electrolytes carry lithium well, but contact with lithium metal raises resistance, causes short circuits and shortens battery life.
Patent
An electrolyte that also stores charge, so less of the cathode is dead weight
The problem. A solid cathode needs electrolyte mixed in to move lithium, but that electrolyte adds weight and volume without storing charge.
Patent
A fluorine skin on a standard sulfide electrolyte stops lithium shorting it
The problem. Sulfide electrolytes conduct well but react with lithium metal and high-voltage cathodes, which raises resistance and lets lithium grow through them.