My suspicion is that this battery will not be used in EV’s but rather more demanding roles like drones or air taxies. It has been my belief that for aviation we will need energy densities between 1000 w/kg and 2000 w/kg. Frankly I do not know if that is even in the realm of physics.
Also, AI has been generating a lot of papers in journals and the pier review process may not be as rigorous as it once was. I used to use a published article as a pretty reliable guide, but now not so much.
Note: Found the original article on X reposted by Battery Bulletin. Originally posted by @ChinaScience. I copied and pasted the post into Claude and asked for a post for METAR. This was the result.
From Claude:
A team from Nankai University and the Shanghai Institute of Space Power Sources has published a significant advance in battery technology in the journal Nature (February 25, 2026). The researchers developed a new class of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) electrolytes that replace the traditional oxygen-based coordination chemistry used in commercial lithium batteries.
The results are striking: lithium-metal pouch cells using this electrolyte achieve energy densities exceeding 700 Wh/kg at room temperature – roughly 2.5–3x the ~255 Wh/kg achieved by today’s best commercial cells (e.g., CATL’s Qilin battery). Even at -50°C, the new cells maintain ~400 Wh/kg, and the batteries reportedly continue functioning normally down to -70°C.
Practical implications for EVs: with a two- to threefold increase in energy storage for the same battery mass, vehicle range could extend from today’s typical 500–600 km to over 1,000 km on a single charge. Beyond EVs, the extreme cold-weather performance opens up potential applications in aerospace, drones, and robots operating in frigid environments.
Of course, this is a lab result, not a commercial product. Key hurdles remain: scaling fluorinated materials cost-effectively, managing lithium metal anode safety (dendrite formation), and manufacturing consistency. That said, FAW (Hongqi) is reportedly already testing a prototype vehicle at the 500 Wh/kg system level, with fleet pilots potentially targeted for late 2026.
For investors, this is worth watching – particularly for implications for Chinese battery supply chain dominance and competitive pressure on established players like CATL, Panasonic, and LG Energy Solution.
Nature article: Hydrofluorocarbon electrolytes for energy-dense and low-temperature batteries | Nature
Hydrofluorocarbon electrolytes for energy-dense and low-temperature batteries
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Nature volume 651, pages 383–389 (2026)Cite this article
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Abstract
Electrolyte solvents for electrochemical devices have been dominated by oxygen (O)-based and nitrogen (N)-based ligands over the past decades1,2,3,4,5, for which the dipole–ion (Li+, Na+and so on) interaction usually lays the foundations of ion dissociation and transport but frustrates the charge transfer process at the electrolyte–electrode interface6,7,8,9. Here, by synthesizing alkanes with monofluorinated structures, we show that fluorine (F)-based ligands with designed steric hindrance and Lewis basicity enable salt dissolution of more than 2 mol l−1. Among them, 1,3-difluoro-propane (DFP)-based Li-ion electrolyte is endowed with all merits for energy-dense and low-temperature batteries, including low viscosity (0.95 cp), high oxidation stability (>4.9 V) and ionic conductivity of 0.29 mS cm−1 at −70 °C. By incorporating F atoms in the first solvation shell, the weak F–Li+coordination facilitates the Li plating/stripping process with Coulombic efficiency (CE) up to 99.7% and exchange current density one magnitude larger than O–Li+ coordination at −50 °C. The electrolytes further enable the operation of lithium-metal pouch cells under an electrolyte amount of less than 0.5 g Ah−1, achieving energy densities greater than 700 Wh kg−1 at room temperature and about 400 Wh kg−1 at −50 °C. The hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) electrolytes in this work provide a feasible approach to building electrochemical systems beyond traditional coordination chemistry.
Cheers
Qazulight