A worker is seen at a lithium battery production workshop of Tianpeng Lithium, a battery manufacturer in Huai"an, East China"s Jiangsu Province, on June 29, 2026. The company is operating at full capacity to fill battery orders and ensure stable market supply. Official data showed that China"s exports of lithium-ion batteries grew by more than 50 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026. Photo: VCG

　　China has built the world"s largest and most complete power battery industrial system after more than two decades of strenuous efforts, with leading technologies and output and sales ranking first globally for years, Wan Gang, honorary president of the China Association for Science and Technology, said at the opening of the 2026 World Power Battery Conference in Southwest China"s Sichuan Province on Thursday.

　　However, Wan also pointed to challenges facing the industry. Globally, supply chains are becoming increasingly regionalized and localized, while domestically, gaps remain in some core technologies, more work is needed in forward-looking and leading-edge research, and technology bottlenecks persist in the recycling and reuse of retired batteries.

　　On power battery technology, Wan called for stronger research and innovation of new battery materials, including next-generation high-capacity cathode and anode materials, and highly stable electrolytes.

　　He called for deeper research and development (R&D) and industrial application of all-solid-state batteries, faster development and large-scale deployment of hybrid solid-liquid batteries, continued improvements in liquid batteries, and greater support for the R&D and application of emerging technologies such as sodium-ion batteries.