Nissan confirmed on April 20 that it has stacked 23 cells into a single all-solid-state battery prototype, meeting the charge and discharge targets the company set for the technology ahead of a 2028 production car. The 23-layer figure matters because it's the threshold for a pack that fits in an actual vehicle rather than a test bench. That was the last engineering gate before the program moves from laboratory validation to vehicle integration.
The announcement came at a technical briefing and was reported by Nikkei. Nissan had previously said the first all-solid-state EVs would land in fiscal year 2028, and product planning director Christop Ambland told Auto Express last year that "the first vehicles will be ready for SSB in 2028." The April 20 milestone is what turns that timetable into a near-term commitment rather than aspirational language.
What Nissan Actually Built
The prototype pack uses LiCAP Technologies' Activated Dry Electrode process, which eliminates the solvent drying steps required in conventional cell manufacturing. Nissan called the cost and efficiency gain a "significant advantage," which is corporate-speak for "the process is what makes this economically viable, not just the chemistry." The Yokohama plant has been producing pilot-line cells since January 2025, and LiCAP is the US partner for mass production.
Nissan hasn't released specific energy density, cell voltage, or vehicle integration figures. What has been said is that all-solid-state chemistry can roughly double range versus current lithium-ion, which on a conservative mid-size EV would imply WLTP figures well over 1,000 km (620 miles) and EPA ratings that likely stay over 600 miles even after the usual WLTP-to-EPA derate.
The caveat is that range is the consumer-facing number, not the one Nissan's engineering team is indexing on. Safety and durability are the variables the industry is now treating as the gating constraints for a mass-production solid-state pack, and those are the metrics the 23-cell prototype is being evaluated against internally.
The Solid-State Field Is Crowded
Nissan is not alone or even ahead. Several Chinese manufacturers are already testing solid-state packs in vehicle prototypes and plan mass production within the next one to two years. Semi-solid-state batteries (a transitional chemistry with partial electrolyte replacement) are already in production cars sold in China and will reach Europe soon.
Factorial Energy's Solstice platform claims 450 Wh/kg energy density, roughly 80% higher than current lithium-ion, and at least 50% range improvement in the 600-mile-plus territory. Mercedes-Benz drove a modified EQS 1,200 km (745 miles) on Factorial cells last September. Factorial CEO Siyu Huang told The New York Times in December that solid-state cells could reach production EVs as early as 2027, a year ahead of Nissan's 2028 target. Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, Hyundai, and Kia are all signed to Factorial partnerships.
Toyota, Volkswagen, and Honda are each running their own solid-state programs with various timelines clustered in the 2027-2030 window.
The Real Question Is Manufacturing
Any single automaker's prototype pack meeting charge-discharge targets is not the industry milestone. The milestone is any one of them shipping a solid-state EV at volume with acceptable unit cost and field reliability. The chemistry problem has been visible for three years. The manufacturing problem, which is what Nissan is trying to solve with LiCAP's dry electrode process and what Toyota has been trying to solve for most of the last decade, is the harder one.
My read is that 2028-2029 is plausible for the first production solid-state vehicles from Nissan, Factorial's partners, or the leading Chinese players. What's much less certain is whether the first generation of production solid-state packs will meaningfully outperform the late-cycle LFP and high-nickel NMC cells that will still be shipping by then. The range doubling narrative assumes a like-for-like comparison, and by 2028 the LFP baseline will have moved.
Nissan's next disclosure milestone will be vehicle-level integration data: actual pack size, actual range, actual vehicle the prototype goes into. The cell stack is done. The car is still ahead.