- SAIC-owned MG will put solid-state battery tech into a production car “within 12 months,” a company official said.
- MG and other SAIC brands are in line to receive the new-generation batteries that offer double the energy density of current units.
- Other automakers like BMW, VW, and Toyota are working on solid-state batteries, but won’t bring them to market until well into the second half of the decade.
MG’s 4 electric hatchback has won plenty of fans thanks to its keen pricing and agile chassis, but the brand’s EVs will reportedly deliver a knockout advantage rival models can’t match starting next year: solid state battery technology.
The SAIC-owned company’s sister brand, IM, has already unveiled a car equipped with semi-solid-state batteries, and will put that L6 sedan into production this fall. But according to comments attributed to a senior SAIC official by Autocar, MG and its sister brands are also in line to receive the tech “within the next 12 months.”
Related: Toyota’s First Solid-State Battery EV With 750-Mile Range Coming In A Couple Of Years
Automakers around the world say solid-state batteries will revolutionize EVs and are locked in a race to bring the tech to market. But most won’t make that happen until the second half of the decade. BMW has previously suggested a 2030 introduction, Toyota is targeting 2027, and even MG had previously said that its solid-state power packs wouldn’t be ready until 2026.
That timeframe has now shifted forward dramatically if claims made by Yu Jingmin, executive vice president of SAIC’s passenger vehicle operations, are correct. Though he wouldn’t reveal to Autocar which MG model would be first to get the new batteries, Yu Jingmin said it would be unveiled during the second quarter of 2025 and be on sale before the end of that year.
Solid state batteries are twice as energy-dense as current equivalents, meaning they can offer a much greater driving range, or allow automakers to create EVs that offer the same range as existing models, but with smaller, lighter batteries that cost less to make.
SAIC’s L6 sedan, whose battery is likely to be shared in some form with MG, delivers a 621-mile (1,000 km) range from 133 kWh and can add 249 miles (400 km) of charge in just 12 minutes.
