New battery-chemistry promises over 1,000 kilometres of range in Honqi EV

The real-world WLTP would probably be lower though.
Text: Magnus Groth-Andersen
Published 2026-02-12

We're expecting traditional lithium-ion batteries to pave the way for a transition to solid-state in EVs during the next couple of years, but before then it seems that a new type of chemistry within the traditional battery framework has a lot more to give.

FAW Group (through a range of Chinese media), one of China's largest automotive manufacturers, have presented a new lithium-manganese chemistry, which isn't truly solid-state, but still apparently manages to give a specific prototype over 1,000 kilometres of range.

This was tested in a Honqi crossover, and in this particular vehicle there are some wild stats. We're talking a 142 kilowatt battery, which manages a density of 500 watt-hours per kilogram on the battery cell-level.

The more realistic range estimates would probably be lower, as this is just the rated WLTP of the battery, not the car, but it's still impressive stuff.

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