National People's Congress Delegate Li Liangbin: Suggests Accelerating Research & Development and Commercialization of High-Power Flight Vehicle Batteries

At the 2026 National Two Sessions, Li Liangbin, a National People's Congress deputy, Vice Chairperson of the Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the China Association for Promoting Democracy (CAPD), and Chairman of Ganfeng Lithium Co., Ltd., submitted a proposal titled "Accelerating the Research, Development, and Commercialization of Batteries for Aircraft."

(National People's Congress Deputy, Vice Chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the China Democratic (National People's Congress Deputy, Vice Chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the China Democratic League, and Chairman of Ganfeng Lithium, Li Liangbin.)

As the low-altitude economy becomes a new arena for global technological and industrial competition, the commercialization of equipment such as electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL) and large drones is accelerating. As the core power source, aircraft batteries are becoming a key variable determining the upper limit of industry development.

"The low-altitude flight market is currently at a critical window period transitioning from technological development to industrialization, and breakthroughs in power battery performance are directly linked to the security and stability of the low-altitude economy industrial chain," said Li Liangbin. He recommended strengthening efforts in top-level design, technological breakthroughs, and standardization to support the autonomous, controllable, secure, and stable development of the low-altitude economy industrial chain.

The development of power batteries for aircraft faces multiple challenges.

According to institutional forecasts, China’s low-altitude economy market size is expected to reach RMB 3.5 trillion by 2035. As the core power source for electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft and large drones—key low-altitude aircraft—battery performance directly determines the pace of industrialization.

Unlike ground-based new-energy vehicles, low-altitude aircraft require continuous output of substantial thrust during takeoff, landing, and hovering phases. At the same time, their stringent requirements for lightweight design and low energy consumption demand battery technologies with significantly higher energy density, discharge rates, and reliability than those used in electric vehicles. Conventional power batteries are thus increasingly inadequate to meet the needs of future large-scale, economically viable operations.

“The power system of aircraft imposes far more stringent requirements on energy density, discharge rate, and reliability than ground vehicles,” said Li Liangbin. Although GANFENG Lithium’s solid-state battery has, as of 2025, completed the phase-based manned aircraft review with the relevant regulatory authority, the industry as a whole still faces multiple development bottlenecks hindering its commercialization.

Performance upgrade pressure is the primary challenge. Although the energy density of commercially leading eVTOL battery cells has already exceeded 300 Wh/kg—sufficient for initial demonstration applications—it must reach 400–500 Wh/kg or even higher to enable routine urban air mobility operations.

Meanwhile, extreme operating conditions such as thunderstorms and high-altitude low temperatures faced by low-altitude flights impose higher requirements on the wide temperature range adaptability and safety stability of batteries. However, existing battery standards cannot fully cover the rigorous usage scenarios of aircraft.

The absence of industry standards further exacerbates developmental difficulties.

Although some enterprises have achieved technological breakthroughs and passed the preliminary review, the industry-level specialized design specifications, testing methods, and fault diagnosis standards have not been fully established, leading to scattered R&D directions and high R&D and commercialization costs for enterprises.

Moreover, the industry is still in its early stages, with insufficient integration across the industry-academia-research-application chain. High upfront R&D investment and the absence of economies of scale, coupled with immature typical application scenarios such as passenger transportation, constrain both technological iteration and supply chain cost optimization.

Suggest accelerating the research and development and commercialization process from five aspects

Li Liangbin suggests building a full-chain development system consisting of "top-level design - technology research and development - standardization - ecological support - supply chain support," encouraging the development of high-energy-density and high-power aircraft power batteries, and accelerating the research, development, and commercialization of related products.

In terms of top-level design, Li Liangbin suggested that the national government departments take the lead in studying and formulating the "Medium- and Long-Term Development Special Plan for the Application of Power Batteries in the Low-Altitude Flight Field," clarifying the technical development path of batteries, industrial incubation goals, and commercialization roadmap. It should be coordinated with the national and local low-altitude economy development plans, and pilot scenarios should be implemented first.

In the field of technological R&D, we call for the establishment of a national science and technology mega-project titled “Advanced Propulsion Systems for Low-Altitude Aircraft,” which will bring together enterprises, universities, and research institutes to jointly tackle core technical challenges—such as achieving high energy density, ultra-high power output, and wide-temperature-range operation—of batteries under extreme aviation operating conditions, thereby enhancing R&D efficiency.

In terms of standard systems, it is recommended to encourage industry associations, leading enterprises, and relevant national departments to cooperate, and to accelerate the development of industry and national standards for dedicated batteries for aircraft, targeting different flight scenarios. These standards should cover the performance, safety, testing methods, and recycling requirements of individual cells, modules, and systems, and maintain dynamic alignment with international standards to gain global market access qualifications.

In terms of industrial ecosystem construction, it is recommended to increase financial, tax, and talent policy support, providing R&D funding, subsidies, and tax incentives to relevant R&D and production enterprises, establishing a low-altitude economy industry investment fund to guide social capital investment; supporting universities in setting up interdisciplinary disciplines combining "aviation + new energy + materials," and having vocational schools offer related majors, establishing a talent training mechanism to reserve a professional talent pool for the industry.

In terms of supply chain security, due to the high energy density and high power requirements of aircraft batteries, the raw materials for positive and negative electrodes may involve critical mineral resources such as nickel, cobalt, lithium, and germanium. Currently, the lithium carbonate futures have been operating for three years, effectively mitigating price fluctuations in lithium resources. To ensure the supply of raw materials and maintain price stability, it is recommended to support enterprises in utilizing the futures market, and to promote the opening-up level of related product futures.

According to data provided by the Guangzhou Futures Exchange (GFE), the average daily trading volume of lithium carbonate futures and options stands at 867,000 contracts, with market scale steadily expanding. The GFE’s lithium carbonate futures now account for over 90% of the global lithium salt futures market in terms of trading volume and open interest, establishing itself as the world’s most liquid lithium futures contract and the one whose prices most closely reflect real-world industrial conditions. Futures prices are progressively becoming a key benchmark for domestic long-term contract negotiations and spot transactions, and are now also being adopted by enterprises in resource-rich countries such as Brazil and Zimbabwe.

Li Liangbin stated that the low-altitude flight market is currently at a critical window period transitioning from technological development to industrialization, and continuously enhancing the performance of aircraft batteries holds significant strategic importance for ensuring the autonomy, controllability, safety, and stability of the low-altitude economy industrial chain.