China's National Technical Committee of Auto Standardization released the country's first national standard for solid-state EV batteries on December 30, 2025. Titled "Solid-state Battery for Electric Vehicle, Part 1: Terms and Classification," the document is open for public comment until February 28, 2026. No other country, and no international body, has published an equivalent automotive solid-state battery standard.
The standard does something deceptively simple but critically important: it defines what "solid-state" actually means. The industry has been using terms like "semi-solid," "quasi-solid," and "liquid-solid" interchangeably, creating confusion about what buyers and investors are actually getting. China's standard establishes three formal categories: liquid batteries, hybrid solid-liquid batteries, and solid-state batteries. The popular term "semi-solid-state" does not appear as an official classification.
Classification by Chemistry and Application
Solid-state batteries are further subdivided by electrolyte type (sulfide, oxide, polymer, halide, and composite), by conducting ion (lithium-ion, sodium-ion, and others), and by application (high-energy and high-power). The technical requirement for classification as solid-state is specific: weight loss rate must not exceed 0.5% under vacuum drying conditions. That's a measurable, testable threshold, not a marketing descriptor.
The granularity matters because it gives automakers and battery suppliers a shared vocabulary. When CATL says it's developing a solid-state cell and BYD says the same, the standard ensures they're referring to comparable technologies. It also gives regulators a framework for safety testing and certification, which is a prerequisite for large-scale commercialization.
The Race to Commercialize
CATL and BYD are both targeting vehicle integration of solid-state batteries by 2027. Toyota has made similar claims. The gap between laboratory demonstrations and production-ready cells remains significant, but China's standardization effort signals that the government expects commercialization to happen within two years and wants the regulatory infrastructure in place before it does.
The MG4 Anxin Edition, which began deliveries in China on December 18 with a hybrid solid-liquid battery, illustrates where the technology stands today. That car uses a cell with 5% less liquid electrolyte than conventional lithium batteries. A true solid-state cell, by the new standard's definition, would eliminate liquid electrolyte entirely. The distance between 5% reduction and 100% elimination is where billions of research dollars are currently being spent.
China publishing this standard first gives its domestic industry a regulatory head start. Companies building to the Chinese standard will have a defined target, while competitors in Europe, Japan, and Korea work without an equivalent benchmark. First-mover advantage in standards-setting is quiet but powerful: it shapes which technologies get certified, which get funded, and which reach the market first.