# Chinese battery makers commission 400 Wh/kg pouch cell lines for aviation *Farasis Energy and domestic peers scale high-energy pilot output to secure airworthiness certification and supply electric aircraft developers.* **Published:** August 30, 2026 **By:** Lian Chen **Section:** Batteries & Electric Vehicles — China **Format:** Company Watch **Confidence:** medium **Source:** https://eastasiabrief.com/batteries-ev/chinese-battery-makers-commission-400-wh-kg-pouch-cell-120 **Publisher:** East Asia Brief (https://eastasiabrief.com/) --- ## What to know - The operational milestone answers performance benchmarks established by China's central industrial regulators. - For aircraft developers, cell energy density directly dictates commercial viability, payload capacity, and operating range. ![A technician measures a silver pouch battery cell with a caliper inside a pilot manufacturing facility. (AI-generated image)](https://eastasiabrief.com/media/2026-08-29-b7340faf28f4.webp) *A technician measures a silver pouch battery cell with a caliper inside a pilot manufacturing facility. (AI-generated image)* Farasis Energy has begun operating a 0.2-gigawatt-hour pilot manufacturing line dedicated to 400 watt-hour per kilogram pouch cells, initiating sample deliveries of large-capacity 60-ampere-hour units to urban air mobility developers. The pilot commissioning marks an operational shift for Chinese battery manufacturers from laboratory testing of ultra-high-energy chemistries to industrial process verification under civil aviation safety standards. The Ganzhou-based battery supplier, which ranks as China's largest manufacturer of pouch-format automotive cells, developed the 400 Wh/kg platform using high-nickel nickel-cobalt-manganese cathode material paired with a silicon-carbon composite anode. The system relies on a hybrid electrolyte architecture, running an oxide-polymer composite route alongside a sulfide-based all-solid-state electrolyte development program. Pouch packaging allows the cell to accommodate the physical expansion of silicon-rich anodes while maximizing volumetric efficiency, eliminating the rigid metallic casing that adds non-active weight in cylindrical and prismatic formats. The operational milestone answers performance benchmarks established by China's central industrial regulators. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the National Development and Reform Commission, issued the Green Aviation Manufacturing Development Outline setting explicit targets for airborne energy storage. The policy mandates domestic mass production capability for 400 Wh/kg aviation lithium-ion batteries and small-scale technology validation for 500 Wh/kg systems to support commercial electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft operations. For aircraft developers, cell energy density directly dictates commercial viability, payload capacity, and operating range. Current production electric passenger vehicles use cells operating between 240 and 285 Wh/kg, a threshold that limits regional air mobility platforms to brief flight times with minimal reserve margins. Reaching 400 Wh/kg at the cell level provides the specific energy needed for multi-passenger aircraft to complete intercity routes while retaining the emergency energy buffers required by aviation regulators. Farasis Energy structured its aviation battery supply program across three distinct generational steps. The first generation supplied 285 to 288 Wh/kg liquid electrolyte pouch cells to commercial aircraft developers, including Joby Aviation. Its second generation scaled 320 to 330 Wh/kg semi-solid-state pouch cells for regional developers such as TCab Tech and XPENG AEROHT. The newly commissioned 400 Wh/kg line represents its third-generation architecture, designed to deliver continuous high-rate discharge performance of 8C for 60 seconds at low states of charge during aircraft landing sequences. The transition from automotive testing to aviation deployment imposes stringent thermal runaway requirements. Under airworthiness evaluation standards established by civil aviation authorities, an airborne battery system must demonstrate that a catastrophic thermal failure within a single cell will not propagate to adjacent cells inside the pack. Farasis Energy subjected its 400 Wh/kg pouch units to five-millimeter steel nail penetration tests and 250-degree Celsius thermal box exposure without open combustion, integrating internal shutdown mechanisms and ceramic-coated solid-state separators to prevent internal short circuits. Similar investments in aviation-grade cell production are expanding across the Chinese battery supply chain. CALB, officially known as China Aviation Lithium Battery, has expanded specialized production lines to manufacture 400 Wh/kg semi-solid-state aviation cells, pursuing formal airworthiness validation with regional aerospace enterprises. Zhejiang Zhengli New Energy, operating as Zenergy, initiated construction on a 100-megawatt-hour pilot facility engineered to manufacture pouch and prismatic aviation cells rated between 400 and 420 Wh/kg. The deployment of aviation-grade pilot lines accelerates material validation for terrestrial automotive applications. High-silicon anodes and solid electrolytes tested under aviation quality standards face gradual integration into ultra-premium electric vehicle platforms. Farasis Energy confirmed that its second-generation semi-solid-state cells operate at a manufacturing cost premium of five to 10 percent above conventional liquid ternary cells, using existing production facilities in Ganzhou, Zhenjiang, and Guangzhou to prepare for broader commercial adoption. Aviation qualification creates a multi-year lead time for suppliers seeking to secure commercial aircraft contracts. Airframe builders require extensive real-world cycle data, requiring airborne batteries to complete several thousand simulated flight cycles under variable atmospheric pressures and temperature extremes before obtaining commercial type certificates. While automotive manufacturers complete design validation in 18 to 24 months, civil aviation certification schedules run between three and five years. Equipment suppliers and specialized chemical vendors are adapting tool designs to support the 400 Wh/kg manufacturing process. The stacking process required for large-format pouch cells demands sub-micron alignment accuracy to prevent edge defects in ultra-thin lithium or silicon composite foils. Cleanroom standards for sulfide solid-state pilot lines require dry-room environments with dew points below minus 60 degrees Celsius to prevent chemical degradation and toxic hydrogen sulfide gas generation during cell assembly. Farasis Energy is conducting customer verification tests on its 60-ampere-hour samples with domestic and overseas eVTOL airframe manufacturers throughout the current operating year. The company's production schedule targets scaling sulfide-based all-solid-state configurations to a gigawatt-hour manufacturing scale in 2026, while advancing laboratory development of 500 Wh/kg lithium-metal anode cells scheduled for engineering validation in 2027. ## Impact map | Event | Korea | China | Japan | Global impact | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 400 Wh/kg aviation cell line | cathode material export shift | eVTOL pilot ramp | separator tool supply | electric aircraft range increase | ## In this story - **Companies:** Farasis Energy, CALB, Zenergy - **Tickers:** 688567.SS, 3931.HK - **Exposed:** Joby Aviation, XPENG AEROHT, Mercedes-Benz - **Policy:** Subsidies, Economic Security - **Impact:** Supply Chain, Capex, Order Book ## Primary sources 1. metal.com 2. libattery.net 3. stcn.com 4. aibanglib.com 5. cls.cn --- Cite as: East Asia Brief, "Chinese battery makers commission 400 Wh/kg pouch cell lines for aviation," August 30, 2026. https://eastasiabrief.com/batteries-ev/chinese-battery-makers-commission-400-wh-kg-pouch-cell-120