On September 3rd, the 2026 World Power Battery Conference will be held in Yibin. As the "Capital of Power Batteries in China", Yibin has been hosting this industry event for five consecutive years.

In the past five years, the power battery industry has experienced a transition from product shortage to structural overcapacity; The technological route is rapidly developing from mainly ternary batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries to new materials, semi-solid and solid-state batteries; The relationship between the power battery industry and upstream and downstream lithium resources, as well as the passenger car industry, has shifted from intense competition to win-win cooperation. In the past five years, Yibin, which has seized industrial opportunities, has promoted the rapid development and growth of the power battery industry, crossing the scale of a hundred billion yuan industry. The output value of the entire industry chain is expected to exceed 150 billion yuan by 2026.

Based on past industry development experience, the manufacturing and technology industries often experience a small cycle of 4 to 6 years. Most industries believe that power batteries are currently in the stage of transitioning from a "production capacity cycle" to a "technology+scenario cycle". The power battery industry in Yibin has completed a scale leap at this transformation node, and is taking the lead in entering a new cycle with a complete industrial chain, forward-looking innovative layout, and accelerated expansion of application scenarios.

Photo by Zhou Yu at the 2025 World Power Battery Conference Plenary Session

New cycle direction one: Industrial chain advantages nurture local new chain owners

Led by Ningde Times, the "chain owner" enterprises are promoting the power battery industry in Yibin to achieve "from 0 to 1". In recent years, by continuously building circles and strengthening the chain, the local related industrial chain has been continuously "expanded" and "deepened". The complete and complete industrial chain has compressed the supply chain radius, improved the matching efficiency, and highlighted the advantages of cost and collaborative innovation. With the fertile soil of the industrial chain, Yibin is expected to nurture local "chain owner" enterprises.

The upstream supporting industries of power batteries include core links such as positive electrode materials, negative electrode materials, electrolytes, separators, copper aluminum foil, and precursors. At present, Yibin Lithium Treasure, Tianyuan Lithium Battery, Tianyi Lithium Industry are deeply involved in positive electrode materials in the industrial chain, while Betray and other companies are laying out negative electrode materials. Kunlun New Materials focuses on electrolytes, while Zhongma Lithium Membrane specializes in separators. In addition, a number of segmented dragon heads in the field of structural components, such as Kedali, Changying Precision, and Zhenyu Technology, have successively landed.

As of now, Yibin has introduced more than 130 power batteries and core supporting projects, forming a "1+N" spatial layout with Sanjiang New Area as the core and coordinated support from multiple industrial parks in surrounding counties and districts. More than 90% of the power battery structural components have achieved efficient local matching.

From the perspective of the development law of the power battery industry, Yibin's complete industrial chain will become an important "driving force" for industrial development. The manufacturing of power batteries is highly sensitive to material consistency, supply stability, and cost control. When the positive electrode, negative electrode, electrolyte, separator, and battery cell factories are geographically close, logistics turnover time is shortened, inventory costs are reduced, and quality collaboration and process iteration can also be quickly feedback in the "partition wall factory" mode. In the operation of the industry, after the completion and operation of multiple factories in Sichuan Times, local supporting enterprises have synchronously expanded their capacity and undergone technological upgrades, forming a positive cycle of "demand driven supply response technology advancement". This vertical integration capability enables Yibin to have stronger supply chain resilience in the cyclical fluctuations of the industry, and also reduces the uncertainty brought by external dependence.

In Sichuan and even the western region, Yibin has completed the first release of the power battery industry chain. In recent years, the production and output scale of power batteries have ranked among the top three in the country. It is expected that Yibin's power battery production will reach 220GWh by 2026. Sichuan Province has proposed to build a leading domestic power and energy storage battery industry cluster, and Yibin has been identified as the main carrier area for the coordinated development of new energy vehicles and power batteries (including energy storage) in the province, undertaking the core mission of building a strong circle and chain, radiating and driving surrounding cities to integrate into the industrial ecology.

For the power battery industry in Yibin, the evolution path of the new display industry in Hefei is worth considering. In 2008, BOE's high-end panel production line was the first to land, solving the pain of screen shortage; Subsequently, upstream and downstream supporting enterprises such as glass substrates, polarizers, driver chips, modules, and equipment accelerated their aggregation, forming a complete industrial chain from sand to machines. On the basis of complete supporting facilities, local enterprises and research and development institutions in Hefei continue to make breakthroughs, promoting the industry from LCD to higher generation technologies such as AMOLED and Micro LED, and deeply collaborating with integrated circuits to create benchmarks like Changxin Storage. Ultimately, they transform the "panel manufacturing advantage" into technological and ecological competitiveness, becoming a core city leading in the scale and supporting level of the new display industry in China.

On the basis of a strong industrial chain, Yibin also has the opportunity to cultivate local leading enterprises in power batteries, leading enterprises in segmented fields, and "dark horses" in vertical fields. This is not only the inevitable development path of the mature battery industry chain in the local area, but also the key to Yibin's sustained industrial competitiveness in the future.

New cycle direction 2: From leading production capacity to leading innovation

While the scale of Yibin's power battery industry continues to expand, it is accelerating its transformation towards innovation driven development. From the academician workstation to the "Jiangyuan Action" and "unveiling the list", from the industry fund matrix to the pilot platform, the innovation system supporting the industry's leap is growing stronger and stronger in Yibin. Yibin's position as the "innovation highland" of the power battery industry is also becoming increasingly prominent.

Currently, the global power battery industry is at a critical juncture of transitioning from liquid lithium-ion to all solid state. Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the CAS Member, proposed that all solid state batteries will be promoted in three generations: the first generation will be from 2025 to 2027, which will focus on the graphite/low silicon anode sulfide system, focusing on the full chain technology; Entering the second generation from 2027 to 2030, with an energy density impact of 400Wh/kg; Moving towards the third generation of lithium anodes after 2030, with a target of 500Wh/kg. Leading companies in the power battery industry generally expect solid-state batteries to achieve small-scale vehicle validation by 2027, but large-scale production still takes 3 to 5 years. This means that industry competition is accelerating from "competing for production capacity and cost" to focusing on technological breakthroughs, material systems, and ecological synergy.

In this context, Yibin is promoting the Sichuan Times Phase 10 project to be put into operation within 2026, further expanding its advantageous production capacity, while continuously gathering innovative resources and integrating various factors to accelerate the industrialization of innovative achievements.

In terms of research and development institutions, Yibin has gathered Academician Ouyang Minggao Workstation, Sichuan Power Battery Industry Innovation Center, Ningde Times Yibin Research Institute and other battery research and development institutions to increase the research and development of key technologies such as (semi) solid-state batteries. We will also build a platform through the "Jiangyuan Action" and promote Yibin to become a technology hub for emerging industries through the model of "selecting the right track, finding partners, sharing interests, and promoting a virtuous cycle". Since 2026, the Intelligent Solid State Battery Innovation Center project led by Professor Zhang Qiang from Tsinghua University and the Polymer Energy Storage Materials Research Institute led by Researcher Cui Guanglei from the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Processes, Chinese Academy of Sciences, have been established in Yibin.

In the workstation of Academician Ouyang Minggao in Yibin, researchers are conducting scientific research work. Photo by Zhuang Ge'er

In order to accelerate the process from "laboratory to market", Yibin has also built a solid-state battery innovation industrial park, attracting solid-state battery research and development, production, and related supporting enterprises to settle in, accelerating the formation of large-scale production capacity for new types of batteries such as (semi) solid-state batteries, and synchronously carrying out vehicle validation and promotion. Sichuan Saike Power Technology Company, incubated and established based on the Ouyang Minggao Academician Workstation, will be completed by the end of 2026 and gradually carry out the joint debugging and testing of all solid state battery equipment. This will be the first intelligent manufacturing pilot line for all solid state batteries in China.

During this process, Yibin has also invested in financial factors to increase support for industries such as power batteries. As a pilot city for national industry finance cooperation, Yibin has created a fund matrix of over 70 billion yuan, with more than 80 fund projects and an agreed investment amount of over 140 billion yuan. It is one of the most active and complete areas for industrial fund investment among similar cities in China.

Currently, traditional power batteries represented by liquid lithium-ion batteries have entered the mature stage of the industry, and the dividends of capacity expansion and cost competition are gradually narrowing. The next generation technologies such as semi-solid and all solid state batteries are accelerating from the laboratory to the market, and will become the core driving force for the industry to enter a new stage. Yibin has proactively laid out multiple technology routes and research and development platforms, as well as multiple links in the industrial chain, to accumulate momentum for continuous leading in the new industrial cycle.

New cycle direction three: downstream application expansion, feeding back power batteries

The downstream demand of the power battery industry was mainly concentrated in passenger cars in the early stage, and its current applications are expanding to new scenarios. Emerging fields such as heavy-duty trucks, water transportation, new energy storage, low altitude economy, and embodied intelligence continue to open up incremental space. Yibin has mainly laid out downstream applications such as battery swapping heavy trucks, inland waterway transportation, and new energy storage, forming a positive cycle of "scenario traction demand feedback technology iteration", which in turn feeds back the upstream battery and material industry.

Photo by Ge Xiaobin, Sanjiang New District, Yibin

As one of the first pilot cities for the application of new energy vehicle battery swapping mode in China, Yibin has taken the lead in building a leading national demonstration system for heavy-duty truck battery swapping. The city has built a total of 23 battery swapping stations and promoted nearly 4000 battery swapping heavy-duty trucks. The number of new energy heavy-duty trucks has increased by more than 16 times compared to 2022, and the proportion of electrification ranks first in the province. In October 2025, the first batch of 16 battery swapping stations in the Ningde Times Qiji Sichuan Chongqing trunk line network will be put into operation simultaneously in Yibin, connecting the Beijing Kunming, Shanghai Chengdu, Shanghai Chongqing and other high-speed trunk lines, creating the first heavy-duty truck battery swapping network in Southwest China that connects major logistics trunk lines. The single battery swapping range exceeds 350 kilometers, which can reduce logistics costs by more than 20%.

Breakthroughs have also been made in water scenes. Yibin has launched the "Electrified Yangtze River" initiative, which has achieved full coverage of electric ships in four core scenarios: freight, cultural tourism, law enforcement, and ferry transportation. This includes the country's first 5000 ton "electric+methanol" dual power cargo ship, the largest electric tourist ship in the province, and the "Chuanhaixun 001" electric patrol boat equipped with Ningde Times 1029 kWh battery packs.

New energy storage has become another important growth pole. Yibin has built 19 new energy storage projects with an installed capacity of 926 megawatt hours, ranking among the top in the province in terms of scale. The 100MW/200MWh grid side energy storage power stations in Sichuan Huadian Sanjiang New District and Datang Xuzhou District have been put into operation successively; As the largest user side energy storage project in the province, Tianyuan Industrial Energy Storage Project has a scale of 100MW/200MWh and reduces electricity costs for enterprises by over 10 million yuan annually. In 2025, Yibin will release a list of dozens of opportunities for new energy application scenarios, with a total investment of billions of yuan, further unleashing the value of the scenarios.

Looking towards the future, low altitude economy and embodied intelligence are becoming the new blue ocean. SECCO Power's high safety batteries have been supplied in bulk to leading electric aviation enterprises, covering low altitude logistics, patrol, emergency and other scenarios; Galaxy General and other enterprises have landed to promote the large-scale application of robots. Industry data shows that the market size of China's low altitude economy is expected to exceed 3.5 trillion yuan by 2035, and the global demand for lithium-ion batteries for humanoid robots will exceed 100 GWh by 2030. These emerging scenarios not only digest local battery production capacity, but also force accelerated iteration of high safety, high energy density, and long cycle life products, opening up broader growth space for Yibin's power battery industry in the new cycle.