China’s EV and battery industry delivered two important signals this week: at the 2026 World Power Battery Conference in Yibin on September 3, officials and industry leaders said the sector is moving from scale-driven growth to quality-led competition, while a new industry index confirmed China’s commanding lead in global battery deployment. Just two days later, on September 5, Dongfeng’s premium EV brand Voyah opened pre-sales for the Dreamer 9 MPV, a tech-heavy flagship that shows how battery, fast-charging, and intelligent cockpit advances are flowing into high-end vehicle products. Together, the announcements underline a new phase for Chinese EVs—one defined not just by volume, but by technology depth, global expansion, and pressure to compete more sustainably.
China’s battery industry is still growing at global scale
At the 2026 World Power Battery Conference in Yibin, Sichuan, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology-affiliated Equipment Industry Development Center released the Power Battery Industry Development Index (2026). The data shows that the electrification wave is still accelerating worldwide.
Key figures from the report:
- Global new energy vehicle sales in 2025 exceeded 20 million units, up about 20% year on year
- NEVs accounted for 25% of global new vehicle sales
- China remained the world’s largest NEV market for the 11th consecutive year
- NEVs reached 47.9% of new vehicle sales in China
- Global power battery installations hit 1,187 GWh, up 31.7%
- China’s power battery installations reached 769.7 GWh, up 40.4%
- China accounted for 64.8% of global battery installations
Those numbers matter because they show China is not merely participating in the EV transition—it is setting the pace in battery manufacturing, deployment, and industrial coordination.
The new battery index: China leads, but competition is evolving
The newly released index evaluates the industry across three levels:
- Global index
- China regional index
- Corporate index
It measures competitiveness through factors including:
- Industrial scale
- Innovation capability
- Supply-chain completeness
- Resource access
- Manufacturing strength
- Green and low-carbon development
- Patent activity
Regional and corporate leaders
The global ranking reinforces a familiar reality: Asia remains the center of gravity for the power battery industry. China leads in market scale, manufacturing, and industrial-chain collaboration, while South Korea and Japan retain strong advantages in battery manufacturing know-how and long-term technology accumulation.
Within China, the regional ranking shifted in a notable way. Sichuan rose to first place, supported by:
- Strong resource access
- Abundant green electricity
- A relatively complete battery supply chain
Jiangsu ranked second and Fujian third.
This suggests the competitive game inside China is changing. Instead of simply adding cell capacity, provinces are now competing on a broader system of advantages: raw materials, clean power, industrial clustering, innovation, and carbon performance.
On the corporate side, the report says the industry still reflects a “one superpower, many strong players” structure:
| Segment | Key finding |
|---|---|
| Industry leader | CATL remains No. 1 |
| Second tier leaders | BYD and LG Energy Solution rank at the head of the second tier |
| Global top 10 | 6 Chinese companies are in the top 10 |
| Combined share | Those 6 Chinese companies account for more than 70% of total share among the top 10 |
That is a striking concentration of power, especially at a time when Europe and North America are trying to localize battery production.
A warning from Yibin: scale alone is no longer enough
Beyond the headline numbers, the tone of the conference was revealing. Senior officials and executives argued that the battery sector is entering a more difficult phase, where quality, discipline, and long-term sustainability matter more than sheer output.
Speakers warned against destructive price competition and over-expansion. According to China’s State Administration for Market Regulation, preventing “involution-style” competition—a term often used in China to describe self-defeating, hyper-intense rivalry—has already been folded into the government’s broader regulatory framework.
Authorities said they are working with ministries including the MIIT and the National Development and Reform Commission to:
- Conduct capacity monitoring and early-warning regulation
- Standardize price competition
- Strengthen product quality supervision
- Promote a fairer “quality-first, price-reflective” market environment
CATL chairman Robin Zeng (Zeng Yuqun) reinforced the message, arguing that Chinese new energy companies now need to move from “Made in China” to “Trusted from China.” His point was clear: trust in batteries is earned through safety, reliability, and long cycle life—not through low prices alone.
EVE Energy chairman Liu Jincheng made a similar argument, saying sustainable business models—not expansion for its own sake—will define the winners of the next phase.
Battery industry 2.0: what changes by 2035?
Another major release at the event came from the China Society of Automotive Engineers, whose report “Toward Power Battery Ecology 2.0: Global Industry Vision and Technology Roadmap for 2035” argues that the industry is transitioning from a 1.0 era of scale expansion to a 2.0 era of high-quality development.
According to the roadmap, the 1.0 phase helped EVs scale quickly, but it also exposed structural weaknesses such as:
- Resource constraints
- Homogeneous competition
- Pressure on margins and sustainability
The 2.0 era will require five major technology leaps:
- Materials system iteration
- Intrinsic safety upgrades
- Ultra-fast charging and energy replenishment
- All-climate battery breakthroughs
- Digital and AI empowerment
It also identifies three ecosystem shifts:
- Expansion into broader application ecosystems
- Reconstruction of circular and recycling ecosystems
- Co-development of global industrial ecosystems
This is important because it frames batteries not as a mature product, but as a still-evolving platform technology with implications far beyond passenger cars.
New battlegrounds: sodium-ion, hybrid solid-state, robotics and storage
The official outlook presented in Yibin points to four big future directions for the battery business:
1. Full-domain electrification
Battery applications are set to expand beyond EVs into:
- Stationary energy storage
- Low-altitude aviation
- Humanoid robots
- Electric ships
- Construction machinery
2. Multiple technology pathways
Rather than one winner-takes-all battery chemistry, the industry expects parallel development of:
- Advanced liquid lithium batteries
- Sodium-ion batteries for specific use cases
- Hybrid solid-liquid batteries
- Longer-term solid-state batteries
The conference also stressed that solid-state progress still depends on overcoming constraints in:
- Materials
- Manufacturing processes
- Yield rates
- Cost control
3. AI-enabled battery development
Artificial intelligence is increasingly being positioned as a tool for:
- New materials discovery
- Process optimization
- Manufacturing upgrades
- Full lifecycle battery management
4. Green and global industrialization
Chinese battery makers are expected to move from simple exports toward localized overseas operations, including:
- Offshore manufacturing capacity
- Local materials supply chains
- Customer service networks
- Talent pipelines
- Recycling and recovery systems
That marks an important strategic shift. Globalization is no longer just about shipping cells abroad; it is about building full industrial ecosystems outside China.
Why Sichuan matters more than ever
One of the most meaningful regional signals from the event was Sichuan’s rise to the top of the China battery index. The province’s strengths line up with the industry’s next-stage priorities:
| Sichuan advantage | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Lithium and related resources | Supports upstream security |
| Green electricity availability | Helps reduce battery carbon footprint |
| Established industrial chain | Improves manufacturing efficiency and clustering |
| Yibin’s battery ecosystem | Strengthens local specialization and supplier density |
Speakers also highlighted a strategic problem: although China is the world’s largest lithium-ion battery producer, its dependence on imported lithium raw materials remains around 60%. That means domestic resource development and recycling remain critical, especially in resource-rich provinces such as Sichuan.
Voyah Dreamer 9 shows where premium Chinese EVs are heading
If Yibin was about the battery industry’s macro direction, Voyah Dreamer 9 is a good example of how those technologies are appearing in vehicles now.
On September 5, Voyah opened pre-sales for the Dreamer 9, a large premium MPV priced from RMB 429,900 to RMB 529,900. The lineup includes Ultra, Ultra+, and Lizzun editions, spanning both PHEV and battery-electric versions.
Core powertrain highlights
- All versions use an 800V high-voltage platform
- PHEV variants get a 65 kWh battery pack
- PHEV models support 5C ultra-fast charging
- Charging from 20% to 80% takes 12 minutes
- The BEV version uses a 120 kWh battery, which Voyah says is the largest battery currently offered in an MPV
For context, that battery size and charging performance put the Dreamer 9 at the sharp end of China’s premium family-and-executive MPV segment.
Smart driving and cockpit tech
The Dreamer 9 also reflects how China’s upper-end EVs increasingly package battery technology with advanced software stacks and supplier partnerships.
Its intelligent driving system includes:
- Huawei Qiankun ADS 5
- 37 sensors
- A latest-generation 896-line dual-optical-path image-grade lidar
- 3 solid-state blind-spot radars
Voyah says the architecture supports city, highway, and parking scenarios through cross-domain coordination between navigation, vehicle control, and assisted driving.
Inside, the MPV uses HarmonySpace 6 with Huawei’s updated MoLA 2.0 architecture. The company claims the cockpit’s multimodal large-model capability has climbed into the hundreds-of-billions-parameter class, a major jump from the previous generation.
Voyah Dreamer 9 at a glance
| Category | Voyah Dreamer 9 |
|---|---|
| Pre-sale date | September 5 |
| Price range | RMB 429,900–529,900 |
| Powertrain types | PHEV and BEV |
| Voltage platform | 800V |
| PHEV battery | 65 kWh |
| PHEV charge rate | 5C |
| PHEV 20-80% charge time | 12 minutes |
| BEV battery | 120 kWh |
| ADAS supplier | Huawei |
| Sensor count | 37 |
The bigger connection: batteries are becoming the core luxury feature
The battery conference and the Dreamer 9 launch may look like separate stories, but they are deeply connected.
A few years ago, premium positioning in Chinese vehicles leaned heavily on cabin materials, rear-seat comfort, and design. Those still matter, especially in MPVs. But now, battery architecture has become a luxury differentiator in its own right.
In the Dreamer 9, premium value comes from a combination of:
- Large battery capacity
- 800V electrical architecture
- High charging rates
- Advanced thermal and power management
- Intelligent driving and software integration
That is exactly the direction outlined in Yibin: better batteries, broader applications, stronger safety, smarter development tools, and greener production.
Why This Matters Globally
For global automakers, suppliers, and policymakers, the message from China is straightforward.
China still dominates battery scale
With 64.8% of global power battery installations, China remains the center of the battery economy.
The competition is getting more sophisticated
The next race will be decided less by raw expansion and more by:
- Technology quality
- Cost discipline
- Recycling capability
- Green manufacturing
- Overseas localization
Chinese EVs are moving upscale quickly
Vehicles like the Voyah Dreamer 9 show how battery leadership is translating into premium consumer products, not just mass-market models.
New applications could widen China’s lead
If Chinese firms can successfully extend battery leadership into storage, robotics, marine, and low-altitude mobility, their scale advantages could deepen further.
What to watch next
Several themes are worth tracking over the next 12 to 24 months:
- Whether government efforts can meaningfully reduce irrational price wars in the battery sector
- How quickly sodium-ion and hybrid solid-liquid batteries achieve commercial scale
- Whether solid-state battery programs can improve yield and lower costs fast enough for practical deployment
- How Chinese battery giants build localized overseas manufacturing and recycling networks
- Whether premium EVs such as the Voyah Dreamer 9 can prove that large batteries, fast charging, and intelligent systems justify higher transaction prices
The most important takeaway is that China’s EV story is entering a more mature phase. Volume still matters, but the decisive metrics are shifting toward trust, resilience, energy efficiency, global execution, and real technology differentiation. In that sense, Yibin’s battery conference and Voyah’s new MPV reveal the same trend from two angles: China is trying to lead the next chapter of electrification, not just the first one.
