Qingtao Energy

Qingtao Energy (清陶能源) is a Chinese solid-state lithium battery developer founded in 2016 in Kunshan by a team led by Tsinghua University professor and CAS academician Nan Cewen . The company positions itself as a global frontrunner in solid-state lithium battery industrialization, having built what it describes as the first scaled production line for solid-state power batteries .

The founding team includes Feng Yuchuan as founder and chairman , and Li Zheng as co-founder, general manager and CTO — a Tsinghua materials science PhD who previously directed the Jiangsu Provincial Energy Composite Materials Engineering Technology Research Center . FreeS Fund (峰瑞资本) led the angel round in 2016 and has since made six follow-on investments, citing China's oil import dependency as the macro thesis behind its early bet on new energy .

Qingtao's product roadmap runs from first-generation semi-solid cells already in mass production at super-GWh scale (420Wh/kg), to second-generation cells targeted for 2024 production, and third-generation all-solid-state batteries projected to exceed 500Wh/kg . In 2023, SAIC Motor became its largest industrial investor with a 2.7 billion yuan follow-on in a G+ round, having already participated in earlier E+ and F++ rounds and established a joint solid-state battery lab with Qingtao in 2022 . The company has also received investment and partnership backing from BAIC and GAC .