When people think about the applications of a power battery, they usually picture a commercial truck, a passenger car, or a grid storage container. Those are the conventional routes, and most manufacturers crowd onto them. But at a plant in the Jiuyuan Industrial Park in Baodi district, Tianjin, engineers at Rong Sheng Meng Gu Li New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. have taken the same fundamental product in a less obvious direction. Their power battery does not stop at the road. It goes up.
The company states that it is among the first domestic commercial-vehicle power battery suppliers to have completed a successful flight trial with its cells installed in an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. The claim is not about a laboratory sample or a bench test. It is about a power battery that has actually lifted an aircraft into the air, an application in which every gram of mass and every fraction of available energy matters.
The headline figures offered by the company are deliberately comparative. General Manager Lang Yingchun, holding one of the company’s cells during a recent visit, noted that comparable overseas products in the same application can stay aloft for roughly 45 minutes, while the company’s power battery can fly for about two and a half hours, at a cost approximately 30 percent lower. For an aircraft, endurance is not simply a convenience. It is the difference between a demonstration flight and a commercially usable mission profile. And for an operator, the combination of longer flight time and lower power battery cost changes the economics of the entire platform.
What makes the achievement more unusual is the path the company took to get there. It did not follow the crowd into the two chemistries that dominate the lithium-ion market. It built its power battery around manganese-based lithium chemistry, a technical route that sits deliberately between the two camps, and it wrapped the chemistry in a flexible pouch rather than a hard metal can. Each of those decisions carries a cost. Each of them, the company argues, carries a corresponding advantage that has now been validated in the air, on the road, and in the grid.
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An Airborne Application Built on a Commercial-Vehicle Power Battery Platform
The eVTOL segment is often discussed as if it were a completely separate industry from the automotive world. In practice, the aircraft depends on the same core building blocks, and the power battery is the most demanding of them. An eVTOL platform needs high power output for vertical lift, sufficient usable energy for cruise, stable behavior under repeated charge and discharge, and a level of safety that cannot be compromised. Packaging mass matters enormously because every additional kilogram of power battery reduces payload or endurance.
Rong Sheng Meng Gu Li’s starting point was its existing commercial-vehicle power battery business. The company already supplies well-known vehicle manufacturers, including FAW Jiefang, Foton Motor, and Geely Automobile, which means its cells have been through the kind of validation cycles that volume vehicle programs demand. Rather than reinventing the product for aviation, the company adapted a power battery architecture it had already proven in heavy-duty road applications and tuned it for an airborne mission profile.
The result is a power battery that delivers endurance well beyond what the company says comparable overseas products achieve in the same class of application. The figure of approximately two and a half hours against roughly 45 minutes is the kind of gap that shifts a platform from short hop demonstrations into longer mission profiles. The reported 30 percent cost advantage compounds the effect. In the eVTOL business, where the power battery is one of the largest single cost items and one of the most tightly constrained engineering elements, a supplier that can offer more flight time at lower cost occupies an unusually strong position.
The company is careful to frame this as an extension of its existing business rather than a departure from it. The same engineering team, the same manufacturing discipline, and the same power battery design philosophy that serve commercial vehicle customers have been carried into the aviation conversation. That continuity matters commercially. It means the aviation product benefits from supply chains, quality systems, and process knowledge that were built up on the road.
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The Pouch Cell Decision and the Safety Argument Behind It
The first thing a visitor notices about the company’s power battery is that the casing is soft. Most power batteries on the market today are packaged in rigid housings. Rong Sheng Meng Gu Li has stayed with a pouch format, a decision the company describes as more costly and more difficult to manufacture but fundamentally safer.
The safety logic is straightforward. When a power battery generates excessive heat, a pouch cell has a controlled way to respond. It swells, releases pressure, and vents smoke rather than rupturing violently. The company’s position is that its power battery will bulge, vent, and smoke under abuse conditions, but it will not explode. That distinction is critical in an aviation application, where a thermal event cannot be contained by pulling a vehicle to the side of the road, and it is equally critical in commercial vehicles that operate continuously in demanding duty cycles.
Choosing the pouch format is a manufacturing commitment as much as a design one. Pouch power battery production requires tighter process control, more careful handling of the cell stack, and more sophisticated sealing and formation steps. The company acknowledges that the route is harder and more expensive than building hard-cased cells. It argues that the safety margin, and the reputation that comes with it, justifies the added cost. For customers evaluating a power battery supplier, especially in applications where passengers or high-value cargo are involved, that reasoning carries weight.
The pouch format also supports the packaging flexibility that an eVTOL installation requires. Aircraft designers need to fit the power battery into spaces that are not simple rectangles, and a pouch-based pack can be shaped and distributed more freely than a bank of rigid cylindrical or prismatic cans. That flexibility feeds directly back into the endurance figures the company is able to quote.
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Choosing the Middle Route in Lithium-Ion Chemistry
The more consequential decision, however, is chemical. The lithium-ion power battery market has consolidated around two dominant chemistries, and the company has chosen neither as its primary route. Instead, it has built its product line on manganese-based lithium chemistry, which it positions between the two mainstream options.
The trade-offs are well understood across the industry. Ternary lithium chemistry delivers outstanding performance, but it is weaker on safety and carries a higher price. Lithium iron phosphate chemistry is safe, reliable, and cost-effective, but it has insufficient power density and is relatively heavy. The company’s manganese-based power battery is designed to combine the strengths of both: power output close to that of ternary chemistry, and safety close to that of lithium iron phosphate.
This is a deliberately demanding technical goal. It requires the company to manage the known limitations of manganese-based chemistry, including its behavior at elevated temperatures and its long-term cycle stability, through formulation and process engineering. That is precisely where the company’s accumulated know-how sits, and it is why the phrase used internally to describe the objective is a combination of both requirements rather than a compromise between them.
Attribute Ternary Lithium Manganese-Based Lithium (Company Power Battery Route) Lithium Iron Phosphate Performance and power output Excellent Power output close to ternary lithium Insufficient power density Safety behavior Relatively weak Safety close to lithium iron phosphate Safe and reliable Cost position Relatively high Between the two mainstream routes High cost-effectiveness Mass characteristics Favorable for performance Balanced Relatively heavy Company’s commercial focus Not the company’s main route Core platform for the company’s power battery products Not the company’s main route The middle route has a strategic benefit beyond performance. It gives the company a differentiated power battery proposition at a time when much of the market competes on the same two chemistries. When a vehicle manufacturer or an aircraft developer evaluates suppliers, a power battery that behaves close to ternary chemistry on power and close to lithium iron phosphate on safety is a genuinely distinct option rather than a me-too product.
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Commercial Traction: eVTOL Orders, Vehicle Supply, and a Large Battery-Swapping Contract
The technical choices are only meaningful if customers buy them. Here the company can point to a concrete order book. Last year it took orders for the power battery systems of 10 eVTOL aircraft. This year that number is expected to reach 30. That trajectory is modest in absolute terms when compared with automotive volumes, but it is significant in a segment where qualification cycles are long and the installed base is still forming.
The company’s core commercial vehicle business continues in parallel. It supplies power battery products to FAW Jiefang, Foton Motor, and Geely Automobile, among other well-known manufacturers. Those relationships provide the revenue base that funds continued development and the manufacturing volume that keeps process costs under control. They also function as a proving ground. Duty cycles in commercial vehicles are punishing, and a power battery that survives them has demonstrated durability that translates well into other applications.
Then there is battery swapping. The company recently signed a contract worth 1.11 billion yuan in the battery-swapping segment. Under the arrangement, it expects to supply 50,000 swapping battery sets per year, producing more than 100 sets per day. The end users are likely to include couriers and delivery riders who exchange depleted packs at swapping stations rather than waiting for a charge. Compared with products from smaller suppliers, the company’s swapping power battery is positioned to offer longer range and higher safety, which is exactly what a high-utilization commercial rider needs.
Business Line Disclosed Status and Progress eVTOL power battery Orders for 10 aircraft last year; expected to reach 30 aircraft this year Commercial vehicle power battery Supplies FAW Jiefang, Foton Motor, Geely Automobile, and other well-known manufacturers Battery swapping power battery Contract valued at 1.11 billion yuan; expected supply of 50,000 sets per year; more than 100 sets per day Energy storage battery New production line nearing commissioning, with output value expected to reach 1 billion yuan Hydrogen fuel cell business Approximately one third of total revenue; cumulative installations exceeding 4,000 units Existing conventional power battery line Daily output of 10,000 cells The combination is instructive. A single power battery platform, refined across chemistries, formats, and control strategies, can serve aviation, road transport, swapping networks, stationary storage, and fuel cell vehicles. Each of those markets has a different duty cycle and a different cost tolerance, but they share a common foundation in cell design, thermal management, and manufacturing quality.
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Energy Storage and the Widening Power Battery Portfolio
Inside the company’s production hall, engineers have been commissioning a new energy storage battery line. The line is expected to enter production shortly, with an output value that could reach 1 billion yuan. For a company whose identity has been built around vehicle power battery supply, the addition is a meaningful broadening of the portfolio.
Stationary storage and vehicle traction place different demands on a power battery. Storage systems typically prioritize cycle life, cost per kilowatt-hour, and long-term reliability over gravimetric energy density, because they are not moving. That makes storage a natural outlet for chemistry and process expertise developed in the transport business, and it gives the company a second volume base that smooths the cyclicality of the automotive market.
The existing conventional power battery line continues to run at a daily output of 10,000 cells. That throughput underpins the company’s ability to serve vehicle customers while simultaneously supporting newer lines. Manufacturing scale is not merely a cost lever in this industry; it is a qualification requirement. Customers want to see that a supplier can produce a consistent power battery at volume, not just a good sample in a laboratory.
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Cold-Weather Performance as a Commercial Differentiator
One of the company’s most commercially effective technical assets is its low-temperature capability. Its power battery continues to operate normally at minus 40 degrees Celsius. That performance rests on a proprietary low-temperature patent technology developed in-house, and it has directly helped the company win a series of large orders.
The significance is easy to underestimate in milder markets. In cold regions, conventional power battery performance degrades sharply, with reduced usable capacity, restricted charging rates, and longer charge times. For a commercial vehicle operator, that translates into lost working hours and unpredictable routes. For a swapping network, it means more packs in circulation to cover the same demand. A power battery that holds its performance at extreme low temperatures therefore commands a premium in exactly the geographies where conventional products struggle.
The low-temperature patent is also a useful illustration of how the company approaches innovation. Rather than pursuing headline chemistry announcements, it has focused on the operating conditions that determine whether a power battery is usable in practice. Cold-weather performance, safety behavior under abuse, and cycle stability are unglamorous engineering problems, but they are the ones that customers actually pay to solve.
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Hydrogen Fuel Cells as a Second Major Business Pillar
The company has also cultivated hydrogen fuel cell-related business into another main pillar. In terms of domestic hydrogen fuel cell installation volume, it has ranked among the industry leaders for several consecutive years. That segment now accounts for roughly one third of total revenue, with cumulative vehicle installations exceeding 4,000 units.
The strategic logic is consistent with the rest of the portfolio. A fuel cell vehicle still requires a power battery to buffer load, recover braking energy, and support peak power demands. The company’s expertise in power battery design, thermal management, and pack integration transfers directly into fuel cell system architecture. By participating in both the fuel cell stack business and the power battery business, the company captures value on both sides of the powertrain.
Having a third of revenue in fuel cells also reduces dependence on any single market. The commercial vehicle power battery business, the eVTOL power battery business, the swapping business, the storage business, and the fuel cell business each move to their own rhythms. When one segment slows, the others can carry the load.
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Patents, People, and the Formulation That Defines the Product
The company currently holds more than 400 patents, and research and development staff account for 30 percent of its workforce. Those ratios are the visible expression of a strategy that treats engineering depth as the primary competitive asset rather than manufacturing capacity alone.
The company identifies its core competitiveness as its battery formulation. Every cell manufacturer works to a different recipe, and that recipe determines the performance and stability of the finished power battery. Two suppliers can buy similar materials, use similar equipment, and still produce products that behave very differently in the field. What separates them is the accumulated knowledge of how those materials interact, how the process must be adjusted, and how the design must change when a customer asks for a different combination of power, energy, safety, and cost.
That knowledge is built through years of technical accumulation and iteration. It is also the reason the company can serve such different markets from a common foundation. An eVTOL customer needs a power battery optimized for mass and power delivery. A commercial vehicle customer needs durability and cost. A swapping network needs fast charging tolerance and consistent behavior across thousands of packs. A storage customer needs cycle life. The underlying formulation work is shared; the tuning is specific.
Research and Development Indicator Disclosed Figure Patents held More than 400 Share of workforce in research and development 30 percent Low-temperature operating capability of the power battery Normal operation at minus 40 degrees Celsius Core competitiveness identified by the company Battery formulation -
Market Demand, Manufacturing Response, and the Discipline of Staying Focused
The company’s own summary of its position is direct. The market sets the requirement, and that requirement forces change on both the production side and the research side. Those who keep up become leaders. Those who do not fall away. The way to keep up, in the company’s view, is innovation.
That formulation sounds simple, but it implies a specific operating discipline. It means accepting higher manufacturing difficulty in exchange for a safety advantage, as with the pouch format. It means rejecting the comfortable middle of the market in favor of a chemistry that demands more engineering work, as with the manganese-based route. It means investing in low-temperature performance for customers whose operating conditions are harsh rather than convenient. Each of those choices is a bet that a differentiated power battery will earn a better return than a commodity one.
The company’s stated plan is to keep deepening its position in the segments it has chosen. The market outlook is described as favorable, and the strategy is to make each power battery as well as it can be made within the selected niches rather than spreading thin across every possible application. That focus is visible in the way the portfolio has been assembled: aviation, commercial vehicles, swapping, storage, and fuel cells are all connected through a common engineering core, but each has a clear commercial rationale.
For the power battery industry as a whole, the case is a reminder that consolidation around two dominant chemistries does not mean the technical argument is settled. A supplier that finds a defensible position between the mainstream options, and that backs it with manufacturing discipline and patent-protected operating capability, can compete in markets where the conventional answer is not good enough. A power battery that flies for two and a half hours rather than 45 minutes, at a lower cost, is not a marginal improvement. It is a different product category, and it demonstrates how far a well-chosen engineering route can travel.
The company’s next steps will be watched closely. The energy storage line is about to start producing. The swapping contract is ramping toward an expected 50,000 sets per year. The eVTOL order book is expected to grow from 10 aircraft to 30. The fuel cell business already contributes roughly a third of revenue. Behind all of it sits the same question that every power battery manufacturer now faces: whether the chemistry, the format, and the formulation can keep pace with a market that keeps raising its requirements. On the evidence presented at the Baodi plant, this company intends to answer that question with more engineering rather than less.