Chery Automobile Enters Nuclear Fusion Sector While Racing Toward Solid-State Battery Production in 2027

In March 2026, Chery Automobile (Qirui Qiche 奇瑞汽车) made a bold strategic announcement that caught the attention of the global automotive and clean energy industries.

The company revealed it’s not just building better electric vehicles—it’s betting big on controllable nuclear fusion technology while simultaneously preparing to launch solid-state batteries in production vehicles within the next couple of years.

This isn’t your typical car company pivoting to EVs. This is something much bigger.

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Why a Car Company is Investing in Nuclear Fusion

• Unlimited Potential: Access to virtually inexhaustible fuel sources for energy production.
• Energy Density: Exponentially higher power output compared to chemical or fossil fuels.
• Environmental Impact: Achieving true zero-carbon emissions without radioactive waste hurdles.
• Supply Chain Control: Positioning the brand at the primary source of the energy value chain.

During the “2026 Chery Battery Night” event held in Wuhu, Anhui on March 18, Chairman Yin Tongyue (Yin Tongyue 尹同跃) laid out an ambitious vision.

Chery is strategically investing in controllable nuclear fusion—essentially an “artificial sun” technology—to secure what they see as the ultimate source of clean energy.

The reasoning is straightforward:

• Vast energy resources: Nuclear fusion has virtually unlimited fuel potential
• High energy density: Produces exponentially more power than traditional energy sources
• Clean and safe: Zero carbon emissions with no radioactive waste concerns
• Long-term competitive advantage: Positioning Chery at the source of energy production itself

Yin Tongyue emphasized that the strategy is designed to achieve zero-carbon emissions throughout the entire life cycle of New Energy Vehicles (NEVs) and promote deep integration between transportation and energy systems.

Rather than building this alone, Chery plans to leverage its “Green Energy Company” platform to collaborate with scientific research institutions.

The focus areas include materials, devices, and application scenarios—moving the technology from laboratory research into real-world engineering exploration.

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The Solid-State Battery Roadmap: From Theory to Your Car

While nuclear fusion might be decades away, Chery’s solid-state battery strategy is moving much faster.

Here’s what the company is actually building:

The “Rhino” Battery Series (Current Generation)

Chery introduced the “Rhino” battery series covering three major categories:

• Hybrid batteries
• Pure electric batteries
• Solid-state specific batteries

These batteries feature a triple safety system consisting of:

• Material-level safety
• Structural safety
• Cloud management safety

They’ve already passed multiple safety tests that exceed national standards and support fast charging with extended cycle life.

Solid-State Battery Technology (Next Generation)

Here’s where things get interesting.

Chery’s all-solid-state battery cells have currently achieved 400Wh/kg energy density.

The company’s target? 600Wh/kg energy density by the target date.

What does that actually mean for drivers? Vehicles could exceed a range of 1,500 kilometers on a single charge.

To put that in perspective:

• That’s roughly 930 miles per charge
• Most current EVs max out around 300-500 miles per charge
• This would nearly eliminate range anxiety for long-distance travel

The Investment Behind the Tech

Chery isn’t just talking about this—they’re putting real resources behind it.

• Over ¥10 billion RMB ($1.39 billion USD) invested into solid-state battery development
• R&D team of over 1,200 people, with 90% holding Master’s or Doctoral degrees
• Pilot production line already completed and operational

The Timeline: When These Batteries Hit Production

Chery has provided clear rollout dates for both semi-solid and all-solid-state batteries:

• Q4 2026: Semi-solid (solid-liquid hybrid) batteries debut in the Exeed (Xingtu 星途) EX7 model
• 2027: All-solid-state batteries scheduled for initial verification in the Exeed (Xingtu 星途) ES8

This is significant because it means production vehicles with advanced battery technology are coming to market within the next 12-18 months.

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The Six-Pillar Energy Ecosystem: Connecting Everything

Chery isn’t just thinking about better batteries. They’re building an entire energy infrastructure called the “Vehicle-Storage-Charging-Grid-Cloud-Carbon” system.

This architecture integrates:

• Energy sources: Wind, solar, hydrogen, and ammonia power
• Storage systems: Advanced battery storage infrastructure
• Charging/swapping stations: Physical charging infrastructure
• Grid integration: Connection to the electrical grid
• Cloud management: Digital control and optimization
• Carbon tracking: End-to-end carbon footprint monitoring

The Ammonia Fuel Cell Innovation

One particularly interesting element: Chery introduced a 25kW ammonia-fueled SOFC (Solid Oxide Fuel Cell) zero-carbon power generation unit.

This unit achieves efficiency exceeding 60%—meaning it converts more than 60% of the fuel’s energy into usable power.

Why ammonia? Because it’s:

• A zero-carbon fuel source
• Easier to store and transport than hydrogen
• Already produced at scale globally for agriculture
• A bridge technology toward complete decarbonization

Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) and the Smart Charging Future

By 2029, Chery plans to build over 20,000 charging piles with V2G (Vehicle-to-Grid) functionality.

This enables bidirectional energy interaction between vehicles and the grid—meaning cars become mini power storage units that can feed electricity back to the grid during peak demand.

Think about the implications:

• Vehicles become part of the energy infrastructure, not just consumers of it
• Grid stability improves through distributed storage
• Drivers could potentially earn money by selling stored energy back to the grid
• Load balancing becomes more intelligent and efficient

Zero-Carbon Manufacturing at Scale

Chery is also accelerating the construction of zero-carbon factories.

The goal: 25 zero-carbon facilities worldwide by 2030.

This completes what they call the “green chain from production to end-user application”—meaning the vehicles are zero-carbon, the batteries are sustainably produced, and the energy to power them comes from renewable sources.

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The Numbers Don’t Lie: Chery’s 2025 Financial Performance

Alongside these tech announcements, Chery released its first annual financial report since going public.

The results? Impressive.

Revenue & Profitability

The results? Impressive.

Revenue & Profitability

• Total revenue 2025: ¥300.29 billion RMB ($41.71 billion USD)
• Year-over-year growth: +11.3%
• Net profit: ¥19.51 billion RMB ($2.71 billion USD)
• Profit growth: +36.1% year-over-year

That profit growth significantly outpacing revenue growth is a strong signal of operational efficiency improvements.

Vehicle Sales Performance

• Annual passenger vehicle sales: 2.63 million units
• New Energy Vehicle (NEV) sales: 826,500 units
• NEV growth: +72.5% year-over-year

That 72.5% growth in NEV sales is massive and shows the market is shifting toward Chery’s focus area faster than many expected.

The Export Powerhouse

Here’s something that often gets overlooked: Chery has remained the top Chinese brand for passenger vehicle exports for 23 consecutive years.

And the trend is accelerating.

• Overseas revenue as % of total: 52.4%

More than half of Chery’s revenue now comes from outside China.

For context, this means Chery isn’t just dominant in China—it’s become a genuinely global automotive player.

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What This All Means: The Strategic Playbook

Industry analysts view Chery’s move into controllable nuclear fusion as a fundamental shift in competitive strategy.

Rather than just competing on current technology, Chery is building a three-tier energy strategy:

• Current (now-2026): Liquid batteries (Rhino series) dominating the market
• Mid-term (2026-2030): Solid-state battery breakthroughs enabling 1,500km+ range vehicles
• Long-term (2030+): Controllable nuclear fusion research positioning them for the next energy era

This is simultaneously:

• Hedging their bets across multiple technology timelines
• Building competitive moats at each level (manufacturing, materials science, energy infrastructure)
• Transforming from a vehicle manufacturer into an energy technology company
• Securing long-term relevance regardless of which technologies ultimately dominate

For investors and entrepreneurs watching the EV and clean energy space, Chery’s playbook is worth studying—they’re not just following industry trends, they’re trying to set them.

The combination of solid-state battery production in 2027, massive charging infrastructure investment, and long-term nuclear fusion research represents a comprehensive bet on being the dominant energy-transportation company of the next decade and beyond.

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References

• Chery Automobile Lays Out Controllable Nuclear Fusion, Solid-State Batteries Planned for 2027 – China Securities Journal
• Official Global Website – Chery International
• Exeed Brand Overview – Exeed Motors