CATL Keeps 2027 Solid-State Battery Target as QuantumScape Plans 100 MWh Line for 2028
CATL told investors on October 27 that it still expects small-batch production of all-solid-state batteries in 2027, with large-scale manufacturing around 2030. The reply went out on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s investor Q&A platform. Six days earlier QuantumScape said its first commercial-scale cell line would be sized at 100 MWh and start production in 2028.
So two of the most watched solid-state programs gave updates in the same week. Neither one brought a date forward.
Where CATL actually stands
CATL is betting on sulfide electrolytes. It has a 10 Ah validation platform, and its cells are in 20 Ah sample trials, which is the stage Chinese press first reported in November 2024. The energy density target is about 500 Wh/kg. The all-solid-state team has more than 1,000 people, inside a company that spent 22.1 billion yuan on R&D in 2025.
What CATL hasn’t said matters more. There’s no planned 2027 output, no named carmaker, no vehicle launch date, and no word on whether 500 Wh/kg is a production spec or a lab result.
The most useful numbers come from the chairman. At the Summer Davos forum in June, Robin Zeng put all-solid-state technology at level 4 on a 1-to-9 readiness scale, which he described as a technology route and not yet a product. He put the odds of solid-state batteries reaching million-unit vehicle installations before 2030 at very small, and said the first cells would go into premium cars. Back in 2024 the company’s chief scientist, Wu Kai, set a goal of level 7 to 8 by 2027. With 2027 two months away, the chairman’s own rating is three or four levels short.
Read “small-batch production in 2027” as a pilot line making cells for testing and a few expensive models.
QuantumScape’s 100 MWh
QuantumScape’s numbers are smaller, and easier to check, because it files with the SEC. Its Eagle Line in San Jose opened in February and makes QSE-5 sample cells. The new line will use cell assembly equipment from Germany’s Muehlbauer Group, which studied the Eagle Line processes before signing on. The company hasn’t said where the line will be built or what it will cost.
100 MWh a year is a small factory. With 75 kWh packs it would cover about 1,300 electric cars. Compare that with the 60 GWh of sodium-ion cells CATL agreed to supply HyperStrong over three years, covered in our post on sodium-ion grid storage orders.
The size fits the buyers QuantumScape now goes after first: AI data centers, defense, aerospace and telecom. On October 8 it launched QS PowerBlock, an in-rack energy storage design for data center servers. In the third quarter it booked its first billings from defense and aviation customers. These buyers need far fewer cells than a car platform does, and a 100 MWh line can serve them while the automotive deals take shape.
Those deals are still moving. Volkswagen’s PowerCo, the original partner, is working out a new statement of work for a longer-term platform. Honda signed an agreement in June, and an unnamed global mobility maker signed in the third quarter.
The money side for the quarter ended September 30: a net loss of $84.5 million, customer billings of $9.8 million (an operating metric, not revenue), and $819.8 million in cash and marketable securities. Full-year guidance for the adjusted EBITDA loss stays at $250 million to $275 million. At that burn, the cash covers a few years. That should be enough to reach a 2028 line, provided it doesn’t slip.
Everyone points at 2027
Almost every large program now sits in the same window. Samsung SDI plans mass production in the second half of 2027 at Ulsan in South Korea. It uses a sulfide electrolyte, targets more than 900 Wh/L, and has sent sample cells to carmakers and humanoid robot makers. Toyota and Idemitsu aim to put all-solid-state cars on the road in 2027 to 2028. In January Idemitsu started building a solid electrolyte pilot plant in Chiba, due in 2027 and rated at several hundred tonnes a year. BYD has also pointed to small-batch output in 2027.
These promises sound alike, but they aren’t the same thing. “Mass production” at Samsung SDI, “small batch” at CATL and BYD, cars in “2027 to 2028” at Toyota and a 100 MWh line in 2028 at QuantumScape describe very different volumes. None of these companies has published a first-year capacity in GWh. Until one does, the honest way to count solid-state output is in samples and pilot lines.
A new EV bought in 2027 will almost certainly still use a liquid electrolyte.