Geely, the Chinese group behind brands such as Volvo, Polestar, Lotus, and Zeekr, just announced that it will complete its first in-house all-solid-state battery pack in 2026 and start testing it in cars.

It reignites one of the electric car industry’s most persistent promises: a battery that charges faster, goes further, and is safer than today’s lithium-ion technology. But behind the headline lies a more nuanced – and more realistic –story about where solid-state batteries truly stand, and what European consumers should actually expect.

Years of testing

Crucially, Geely is not promising a showroom-ready breakthrough. The company says it will finish a full solid-state battery pack and install it in test vehicles for validation.

That distinction matters. Moving from laboratory cells to a complete battery pack that withstands vibration, temperature extremes, fast charging, crashes, and years of use is where many solid-state projects slow down – or fail altogether. This is the phase where theory meets reality.

In practice, the technology still faces stubborn challenges: unstable interfaces between solid materials, pressure sensitivity, degradation during fast charging, and difficult-to-scale manufacturing yields.

That is why even the most advanced automakers describe solid-state not as a near-term replacement, but as a next-generation option that must coexist with improved lithium-ion for years.

In practical terms, any solid-state rollout at Geely would most likely begin late this decade in halo models from Zeekr or Lotus, possibly followed by limited applications at Polestar, with Volvo only adopting the technology once it is fully proven and cost-competitive.

For Geely, 2026 looks set to be a year of engineering validation, not commercial launch. Several global manufacturers are already at a similar stage, testing solid-state cells in prototype vehicles to understand real-world behaviour.

Selling these batteries at scale is another matter entirely. Most credible roadmaps still point to limited commercial use in the late 2020s, with broader adoption only possible if manufacturing costs fall dramatically.

Cost is the real hurdle

Lithium-ion batteries are getting cheaper and better at an extraordinary pace, driven by massive scale, intense competition, and advances in chemistry, such as LFP.

Any new battery technology entering the market must beat a moving target. Early solid-state batteries are almost certain to be more expensive than today’s packs, which means their first appearance – if successful – will be in premium, low-volume models where price sensitivity is lower and technical prestige matters more.

This cost pressure also explains why some of the most influential players in the battery industry are looking beyond lithium altogether. CATL, the world’s largest battery manufacturer, has been pushing sodium-ion batteries as a near-term alternative precisely because they avoid many of lithium’s structural cost and supply constraints.

Sodium is abundant, cheap, and geopolitically less sensitive, and CATL now claims its latest sodium-ion cells are approaching LFP-level performance while offering strong safety and cold-weather advantages.

The trade-off is energy density: sodium-ion batteries won’t power long-range, premium EVs any time soon. But for entry-level cars, urban vehicles, and commercial fleets, it could undercut lithium-ion on cost much sooner than solid-state ever could.

In that sense, sodium-ion may end up reshaping the affordable end of the EV market faster than solid-state reshapes the high end – further raising the bar for any new battery technology that wants to compete on price.

Incremental gains

That cost reality is what ultimately frames the future of electric mobility in Europe. While solid-state batteries continue their slow, cautious march from labs to test vehicles and eventually to premium flagships, more prosaic technologies are reshaping the market faster.

Lithium-ion keeps improving and getting cheaper, and alternatives like sodium-ion are emerging as credible tools to drive down entry-level prices. For consumers, this means the next few years are more likely to bring affordable EVs through incremental chemistry gains than through dramatic breakthroughs.