Interview with New Era's Qian Yunxian: Sunwoda "Expands Overseas", New Era "Supplies Vital Support"

"Electrolyte is the 'blood' of the cell. For fast charging, low-temperature resistance, and long cycle life, the blood formula must change accordingly." On the evening of September 16, facing interviews from media such as "Phoenix WEEKLY Auto", New Era Vice President Qian Yunxian mentioned this logic multiple times. According to her introduction, even for the same lithium iron phosphate battery cell, the electrolyte formula has been adjusted by 60% to 70% over the past decade, with energy density, fast charging, low temperature, and long cycle life driving the formula forward.                                              

Fig./Phoenix WEEKLY Auto

More than ten hours later, Sunwoda Power released the Smart Flash Charge Battery System Solution at the 2026 New Energy Battery Industry Development Conference which opened on the morning of September 17, pushing the limits of flash charging again. Based on a 15C peak flash charge rate, the solution charges from 10% to 70% in 5 minutes at room temperature, providing 100 kilometers of range per minute of charging, and charges from 20% to 97% in 12 minutes at -30°C low temperature. According to official figures, starting from the mass production of 4C flash charge batteries in 2022, Sunwoda Power has multiplied this number nearly four times in four years.

The "All-Round · Boundless" Photovoltaic Storage Flash Charge Open Ecosystem Platform, unveiled the same day, packed the flash charge battery, energy storage cabinet, charging host, liquid cooling terminal, and an AI cloud platform into a complete solution for charging stations, making charging as fast as refueling, making the battery lifecycle more reliable, and making every kilowatt hour smarter and more efficient. Wang Mingwang, founder of Sunwoda Group, said batteries are transforming from an energy carrier into a node connecting the entire vehicle, the power grid, and users. Sunwoda set the implementation goal for this platform to build 10,000 megawatt-level flash charging stations nationwide by the end of 2027.

Flash charging is fiercer, 'blood' needs changing more frequently

Why can electrolyte determine how fast a battery charges? Qian Yunxian's explanation is that electrolyte is responsible for conducting lithium ions; without it, the cell cannot complete charging and discharging. It accounts for a small portion of cell cost, uses basic chemical raw materials, yet directly relates to whether the battery generates heat, produces gas, or decays early under high current.

New Era and Sunwoda Power have collaborated for over ten years, starting with consumer batteries. Accompanying Sunwoda Power from Shenzhen to layout nationwide, now Sunwoda Power's various mass production bases in China basically all have New Era support. For their consumer subsidiary Liwei's material support, New Era also deeply participates. Sunwoda Power layouts power and energy storage multi-category cells simultaneously. Different products have different requirements for electrolytes. Some focus on fast charging, some on long cycle life, some have strict standards for safety and wide temperature range.

15C rate proposes higher requirements for various technologies. High current fast charging means heat, gas production, and life decay. To ensure non-operating vehicles have unlimited flash charging times within the 10-year 300,000-kilometer warranty period, cell, thermal management, and material solutions must catch up. Qian Yunxian's judgment is that to improve battery life by 10% to 20%, adjusting electrolyte solutions is an effective path. Electrolyte's proportion in cell cost is not high, but the cost-performance ratio for performance improvement is high, mainly through matching solvents, lithium salts, and film-forming additives (such as commonly used VC).

This matching is not as simple as sending samples and inspections. Both teams have deeply integrated. Sunwoda Power splits cell indicators to New Era, New Era then splits indicators into electrolyte development goals, doing material innovation, formula matching, sample verification, small trial, middle trial, mass production all the way down. "If relying completely on blind testing and blind sample sending, R&D failure rate will be very high," Qian Yunxian said.

Placed ten years ago, this collaboration was unimaginable. Nowadays, electrolyte and cell manufacturing are experiencing development from fine chemicals to bulk chemicals. The past was a simple buying-selling relationship. Now power batteries and energy storage batteries have a compound annual growth rate over 40%. Flexible delivery, process consistency, safety control, response efficiency are all new topics.

Looking forward, technical routes are also branching. Qian Yunxian mentioned that past people thought energy storage battery technical thresholds were simple, unexpectedly industry development speed far exceeded expectations. Cell size continues to grow larger. Lithium iron phosphate system internal innovation continues, including sodium-ion, semi-solid, lithium iron manganese phosphate etc. directions, New Era internal innovation team is already doing R&D attempts.

When asked if solid-state batteries will replace liquid batteries, her judgment is liquid batteries will still be the market mainstream in the future ten years, solid-state will only develop in specific niche scenarios. Another new variable is AIDC data centers and AI digital intelligence scenarios. Pain points of smart equipment are often not action execution but battery endurance, which puts new requirements on energy density and flash charge.

Lessons on Going Global from the Storage Tank

This March, New Era completed the bulk delivery of electrolyte to Sunwoda Power's Thailand base. Qian Yunxian recalled that Sunwoda Power's Thailand base construction speed "reached world-class levels", far exceeding their expectations.

Electrolyte is a very demanding product. Shelf life ranges from shortest 40-50 days, longest not exceeding 90 days, most requiring low-temperature storage and transport. This means New Era cannot mix domestically and then ship via sea; they must intervene synchronously when the customer builds the factory, from tank system planning, on-site support to inspection laboratory full process construction.

The storage tank itself is a hurdle. Domestic teams built storage tanks according to domestic standards, but upon arrival in Thailand they failed local safety and environmental reviews. Even flange and joint specifications differ from domestic ones; copying domestic designs means they cannot be used. Thai factory areas are not all Chinese employees; local workers have limited cognition of hazardous chemicals usage. New Era must also train regarding hazardous chemicals usage, while studying local regulations and respecting local culture. Qian Yunxian said this is not something one company can accomplish alone; they and Sunwoda Power formed a joint team to project-manage this overseas large project.

This "partnership" is two-way. New Era's own global layout started very early; Poland factory commenced production in 2021 with 60,000 tons capacity; US project already acquired land and started construction; Malaysia factory is in planning, intended to radiate Thailand, Indonesia; the company even noticed ethylene oxide, ethylene, crude oil cost advantages in the Middle East, assessing local electrolyte projects. Electrolyte upstream raw materials heavily concentrate in China, but overseas market local manufacturing policies require localized production. New Era can only move raw materials, capacity, and supply chain together outwards.

In her view, domestic new energy passenger vehicle penetration rate has already exceeded 60%, approaching 65%. Overseas most markets are still hovering between 10% to 15%, many developing countries lower. Overseas some regions energy supply stability is weak, residential storage, portable energy storage demand is vigorous. Increment is overseas, challenges are also overseas, policy environment is complex, different countries' policy change risks are high.

The 10,000 flash charging station target announced by Sunwoda Power at the conference sounds like an infrastructure story. But in the more upstream of the industry chain, New Era has been laying out China's battery capabilities section by section to overseas in concrete links like storage tanks, formulas, chemical industrial parks, and local compliance. From consumer batteries to power batteries, from 4C to 15C, from Shenzhen to Zaozhuang to Thailand base. Qian Yunxian's observation is that the competitiveness of China's new energy industry is no longer single-point technology of one company, but the capability of the whole chain going out together and growing together.