In response to declining sales in the Chinese domestic market, the Chinese automaker Chery has implemented the 'Rhino' warranty plan for its electric vehicles. This initiative guarantees the complete replacement of the vehicle if thermal runaway occurs in the battery, which could result in fire and physical damage to the car.
To back this warranty promise, the manufacturer revealed an investment of 10 billion yuan (equivalent to approximately R$ 7.58 billion) dedicated to research and development in technological safety. The new engineering standards established by the company are considered ambitious, exceeding current regulatory requirements in China by up to ten times.
The battery casings are designed to withstand impacts of 1,500 joules on the bottom, a level that Chery claims is ten times higher than the minimum required by the new state legislation. Furthermore, simultaneous puncture tests using ten needles were conducted, during which the brand stated that there was no emission of smoke or ignition.
Industrial precision has also been significantly improved. The automaker operates cell assembly in strictly controlled environments, keeping the count of dust particles of 0.5 micrometers or larger below 40 per cubic meter. To prevent particle generation from friction, the factory uses a 100-meter magnetic levitation logistics line to move components.
These manufacturing protocols will be applied to the entire new vehicle lineup, including future plug-in hybrid models such as the Fulwin A9 sedan and the Fulwin T7 utility vehicle. The current production structure also serves as a basis for the next generation of cells, as Chery has filed a patent for sulfide-based solid electrolytes, aiming to achieve an energy density of up to 600 Wh/kg in future applications.
This strategic move comes during a challenging period for the company. Market data indicates that Chery's monthly deliveries in China dropped from 51,417 units in June 2025 to 31,738 in May 2026, representing an annual decrease of 34.8%. With a 2.1% share of the domestic market, Chery is betting on maximum safety as its main competitive advantage, sustaining this confidence with a test fleet of 43,000 vehicles that has accumulated over 1.2 billion kilometers without recording any fire incidents.
China's strategy to make electric cars affordable has encountered a dilemma: to reduce the cost of sodium-ion batteries, considered a promising option for sustainable mobility, the domestic industry has begun using coal.
Unlike lithium-ion batteries, sodium batteries use more accessible and abundant raw materials, which should lower the final price of vehicles. However, the technological shift presented a significant technical challenge: since sodium ions are larger than lithium ions, they prevent the use of graphite anodes. Therefore, manufacturers had to develop the capability to produce so-called 'hard carbon,' which fulfills this function in sodium cells.
Initially, this hard carbon was extracted from biomass, mainly carbonized coconut shells, which were imported from Southeast Asia. Although this solution worked, it created external dependence that Beijing wished to avoid and could not meet demand. Domestic coconut production would only be sufficient for about 6.3 GWh of batteries annually, a volume much lower than the sector's projection of over 100 GWh by 2027.
To eliminate this dependence, the industry turned to anthracite coal, a resource widely available in Chinese territory. Despite seeming contradictory to use a fossil fuel in an ecological technology, this choice is seen as strategic. The hard carbon anode accounts for between 10% and 20% of the cell mass, and chemical companies are already adjusting their production lines to transform coal into high-purity hard carbon.
Furthermore, there is a notable gain in efficiency: while processing agricultural waste, such as coconut shells, recovers approximately 2.5% of usable carbon, the process with anthracite can reach about 45%. This change has already impacted costs, causing the price of hard carbon to drop to less than 30,000 yuan per ton (about 23,000 Brazilian reais at the current exchange rate). The sector is now aiming for an even more ambitious target, aiming for a cost below 20,000 yuan (approximately 15,000 Brazilian reais) per ton.
With this, China is advancing in building an almost self-sufficient supply chain for sodium batteries. By reducing costs, this technology is expected to be adopted more widely compared to lithium iron phosphate batteries, especially in entry-level electric models, where price remains the determining factor for the consumer.
