1500km driving range in this upcoming EV?! Chery brings the holy grail of battery tech to a new concept car as it looks to rival Chinese tech leaders like Zeekr, Xpeng, and BYD

Not to be left in the dust by the big tech-leading Chinese automakers, Chery will show a slick new concept vehicle at the Guangzhou Auto Show with a solid state battery providing a claimed 1500km of driving range.

The Chery Liefeng concept is a coupe-wagon in a similar design style to Kia’s upcoming EV4, with a wide, low-slung face, triangular motifs for its wheels, and a sleek silhouette. It has an 800-volt electrical architecture, a claimed 0-100km/h sprint time of 3.0 seconds, dual-chamber air suspension and four-wheel steering, alongside what is claimed to be level 3 driving autonomy.

Power figures are yet to be revealed, as are any images of the interior, but the brand is promising a large multimedia screen, head up display, ambient interior lights, and dual wireless charging. Additionally, the front passenger seat will fold entirely flat.

The Liefeng is set to belong to Chery’s Fulwin spin-off brand, which currently fields slightly more upmarket versions of Chery products, exclusively with plug-in hybrid power using the brand’s C-DM technology (a direct rival to BYD’s DM-i set-up).

Fulwin vehicles are not yet offered in Australia, with Chery focusing on its main brand and its Jaecoo semi-premium arm, which will launch initially with combustion engine options in 2025.

Chery will need to branch into more hybrid tech going forward, as Australia’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) start to bite later in the decade.

Solid state batteries, often seen as the holy grail for unlocking major driving range upgrades for batteries, have been a major focus for manufacturers the world over since EVs started selling in serious numbers. It swaps out the liquid or gel electrolytes in current lithium-ion batteries for solid electrolytes with theoretically much higher energy density and faster charging times.

Technical and cost limitations such as the need to operate at higher temperatures to be viable, as well as the cost of materials have prevented them from being launched, at least for vehicle applications so far, with the world’s automakers racing to be the first with a marketable version of the technology.

Chery’s ‘Kunpeng’ series of solid state batteries have been in the works for some time, with the brand saying small-scale production will start in 2026 with larger batch production (likely for a more mainstream vehicle application) not earmarked until 2027.

Its domestic rivals will be chasing it down, with the world’s largest battery manufacturer, CATL, announcing last week that it was entering trial production for a solid state battery in the same kind of format used in electric vehicles.

Chery will have a fight on its hands with MG-owner SAIC also laying claim to a solid state battery just around the corner. It revealed its ‘Lightyear’ battery in April, which is planned to be deployed in its IM L6 sedan. The brand claims has over 1000km of driving range thanks to a 30 per cent energy density increase over current technology.

Other battery manufacturers, from GWM spin-off Svolt, to Japan’s Panasonic also have big plans to revolutionise the industry with solid state battery packs, yet production plans have not materialised. Many brands have earmarked the latter part of the 2020s for production, including Toyota which has until recently been a notable laggard on the deployment of EV tech despite its notable lead in plugless hybrids.

Nissan and Honda have also said their EV plans will be more viable once solid state batteries are available, as they struggle to compete with a torrent of affordable lithium-ion battery powered Chinese vehicles.

Will brands like Chery beat them to the punch? It may not be long before we find out.