Speaking at the 2026 Powering the Nation Forum, CATL Chief Scientist Wu Kai detailed the company’s strategic commitment to lithium-air battery technology for next-generation energy storage. This is the first time CATL has publicly named lithium-air as a major priority in its long-term development roadmap.
Often described as “breathable” batteries, lithium-air cells use a lithium metal anode and pull oxygen directly from the atmosphere for the cathode reaction. This approach significantly cuts cell weight compared with conventional lithium-ion designs that depend on heavy metal oxide cathodes. The theoretical energy density of lithium-air systems can reach as much as 12,000 Wh/kg—on par with gasoline—while current laboratory prototypes have already exceeded 1,200 Wh/kg. That figure is more than four times the 250–270 Wh/kg typical of mainstream lithium-ion cells and well above the projected performance of solid-state batteries.
If successfully commercialized, the technology could give electric vehicles a driving range of over 1,600 km on a single charge, directly addressing range anxiety. Practical deployment, however, has been held back since the 1970s by hurdles such as sensitivity to moisture and carbon dioxide, unstable catalysts, and limited cycle life.
Recent advances have rekindled interest. In 2024, a team from the University of Illinois Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory, and California State University, Northridge demonstrated more than 700 cycles in an air-like environment. In 2025, Argonne and the Illinois Institute of Technology unveiled a room-temperature prototype that delivered 1,200 Wh/kg and lasted 1,000 cycles, with real-world deployment expected after 2030.
This announcement follows CATL’s momentum in sodium-ion batteries. After first proposing the concept in 2020, the company had scaled up production by 2026, integrating the cells into vehicles including the GAC Aion UT, Changan Oshan 520, and models from Geely, Chery, and FAW.
CATL’s technology roadmap now encompasses mature products for immediate market demand, solid-state batteries to raise performance in the mid term, and lithium-air systems to push the ultimate limits of energy density in the long term. The company currently holds a 47.0% share of the global power battery market. In 2025, it shipped 121 GWh of energy storage systems, capturing a 30.4% share worldwide.
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