Boost for EVs: Chinese carmaker Chery to begin testing solid-state batteries next year

Chery Automobile, China’s largest car exporter by deliveries, will begin testing its solid-state batteries next year, aiming to spearhead commercialisation of a technology likely to further spur the electrification of the global automotive industry.Yin Tongyue, the chairman of the state-owned carmaker, which is based in central China’s Anhui province, said on Thursday that it would invest 10 billion yuan (US$1.49 billion) in the new battery technology over the next two years, with 1,200 engineers to be deployed in the hunt for innovative breakthroughs.“Multiple [battery] technology plans are being laid out,” he told the World Power Battery Conference in Yibin, Sichuan province, the National Business Daily reported. “We will not install them in our vehicles unless they prove to be absolutely safe.”