First EV With Semi-Solid-State Battery Could Cost Near $10,000

• MG4 with semi-solid-state battery pack revealed in patent photos by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

• The semi-solid-state tech will permit greater thermal safety, lighter overall weight, better cold weather performance, higher energy density, and longer overall battery life, as well as more frequent complete discharge cycles.

• Several battery tech developers working with large automakers are racing to make solid-state batteries something that could be put into mass production in cars soon, with the industry anticipating the tech to be a game-changer.

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One could imagine that the first production EV with a semi-solid-state battery would be futuristic to the point that it features wedge surfacing sharp enough to give you a paper cut if you looked at it wrong.

But in reality, it just looks like a surprisingly convincing take on the long-fantasized $25,000 Tesla Model 2 with an exterior design that’s about 10 years out of date.

It’s called the MG4. That’s right—that MG, which has been owned by China’s SAIC for about two decades. And it’s expected to be priced somewhere near $10,000 when it goes on sale later this summer in various forms and battery versions.

Of course, not all versions of the MG4’s batteries will be semi-solid-state, as there will be some more affordable and more common LFP options.

Thanks to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), we are getting a good look at this decidedly non-futuristic-looking future.

The future, however, is all in the battery underneath (which we can’t see), and it’s a manganese-based lithium-ion battery produced by Suzhou Qingtao Power Technology instead of a lithium-ion or lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) composition, and it roughly represents a half-step to solid-state battery technology.

Many Benefits, But Higher Cost, Too

Why is this a big deal?

Solid-state batteries promise quicker charging times, greater thermal safety, better cold weather performance, higher energy density, and longer overall battery life, in addition to tolerating fuller charge/discharge cycles.

This one, however, is a half-step toward these benefits, so it’s still supposed to have better cold-weather performance, but energy density is about on par with traditional lithium-ion designs, and still contains 5% liquid electrolyte, which is more common in familiar lithium-ion compositions.

But it’s still a big step forward, and frankly we’re not surprised that it’s happening in China.

Like we said—it’s a half-step. The cost of this particular battery is unknown, but solid-state batteries are generally more expensive than lithium-ion batteries in today’s EVs, which explains the slow rollout.

Were this a completely solid-state design, it would have a solid electrolyte instead of a liquid or semi-liquid one, and it would lack an anode entirely, thereby saving quite a bit of weight and, uhh, the potential for thermal events.

But MG’s design is already reported to be much safer than traditional lithium-ion packs.

Battery Capacity, Range Still Unknown

It’s also the liquid electrolyte in current lithium-ion designs that makes them heavy and rather easily combustible under the right conditions, as we’ve seen on countless YouTube videos of Teslas getting their batteries punctured by debris on the freeway.

There are still a few crucial unknowns: We won’t know the battery capacity, range, or price for a few more weeks. Concrete details for the Chinese market are set to be revealed in September.

But don’t expect over 160 hp in this single-motor hatch, as this will still be a commuter car with a length of 173 inches, aimed at a specific price point.

Still, it will have modern tech like a 15.6-inch infotainment screen dominating the dash.

It remains to be seen whether MG4’s semi-solid-state design can be a meaningful technological step forward, but it’s also hard to argue with any EV that starts near $10,000 with any battery pack, including cheaper LFP units.

MG isn’t the only one working on solid-state batteries—pretty much all EV makers are. And it’s definitely not the first one we’ll see on the road stateside.

Our money is on some European automaker, likely Mercedes-Benz or BMW. All the EV makers have been backing countless startups for the past decade, hoping they will arrive with the magic formula as well as the means to mass produce it.

That second part—mass production—might turn out to be more difficult than developing the correct and usable composition, and it’s perhaps the main reason we haven’t seen a solid-state battery in a production car here by now.

Will we see all-solid-state EVs for sale in North America by the end of the decade, or will this tech take longer to arrive? Please comment below.