34: Chapter 34 Groundbreaking Data! Incredible Solid-State Batteries

The saw blade cut two centimeters, and the sparks died out.

Lu Chen's arm remained motionless as the saw teeth bit into the black brick, making a rasping sound like sandpaper rubbing against rough wood.

Three centimeters, five centimeters, eight centimeters.

There was no one left standing in the entire venue; those who could run crowded toward the back, while those who couldn't crouched behind their chairs, clutching their heads.

Jason curled up entirely under the table, covering his ears with both hands.

Only three cameras still had their red lights on; the cameramen had all fled, leaving the machines on tripods to record automatically.

Chen Hao crouched nearby, his face less than half a meter from the cut, staring unblinkingly at the cross-section inside the saw kerf.

"Click."

The saw blade pierced through the bottom.

The black brick split into two halves down the middle, lying steadily on the shattered crystal display stand, its cut surface smooth, revealing the tightly compressed composite electrode plates.

Lu Chen released the trigger and tossed the electric saw onto the glass-strewn floor.

One second, three seconds, ten seconds.

There was no high heat, no tongues of flame, not even any smoke.

Lu Chen brushed the dust off his hands, pulled over a chair, and sat down.

"Everyone get up; the floor is cold."

Several automotive CEOs tentatively raised their heads, their eyes fixed on the cut-open battery on the stage.

Boss Liu stood up, leaning on his chair, his legs still weak.

"Boss Lu, how is it possible for a fully charged high-energy battery not to suffer thermal runaway when cut open?"

Lu Chen ignored him and turned his head to look at Chen Hao.

Chen Hao picked up the left half, flipped it over, and pressed his thumb against the gray cross-section.

"It's dry."

He looked up at Jason, who was still huddled under the table.

"There isn't a drop of liquid on the cross-section. The thermal runaway and combustion you mentioned require liquid electrolyte leakage to cause a short circuit between the positive and negative electrodes."

Chen Hao turned the cross-section toward the nearest camera that was still recording.

"There is no liquid inside. The ions move within a solid crystal lattice; whether you hack it with a knife, saw it, or smash it with a hammer, it won't explode."

"Because the physical basis for an explosion doesn't exist."

Jason slowly crawled out from under the table, his pants knees covered in dust, and stood straight by holding onto the edge of the table.

"That's impossible. The ion conductivity of all-solid-state electrolytes is far lower than that of liquid ones; it's fundamentally incapable of supporting high-power discharge..."

"Are you talking about the sulfide system or the oxide system?" Chen Hao interrupted him.

Jason was stunned for a moment.

"They're all the same. Morgan alone has poured eighty million dollars into just this one area..."

"Then you've poured it into the wrong place."

Chen Hao placed the battery back on the tabletop.

"We aren't using sulfides, nor are we using oxides."

He looked back at Lu Chen.

Lu Chen shook his head slightly.

Chen Hao shut his mouth and stepped back.

Every Solid-state battery development path currently being researched globally was completely ruled out.

Big Mouth Liu nimbly ran to the equipment console and connected the output cable of the military-grade portable tester to the venue's massive LCD screen.

Chen Hao picked up the probe and pressed it against the cross-section of the half-battery.

The big screen flickered twice, and lines of data popped up.

Energy density: 1150Wh/kg, which is exactly three times higher than the top-tier lithium batteries on the market.

The internal resistance was stable, and the voltage output curve was a perfect straight line.

Estimated cycle life: over ten thousand times.

Morgan's foreign technical expert sprang up from the ground, not even caring that his gold-rimmed glasses had fallen and been crushed under his feet, and rushed to the display stand, his face pressed against the screen.

"It's fake! You modified the code on the tester!"

Chen Hao pulled a lighter from his pocket, "clicked" it to ignite it, and held the flame directly against the exposed electrode plates inside the cut battery.

Despite the flame's burning, the battery casing remained ice-cold.

The expert's mouth hung open, unable to utter a single word.

Chen Hao patted his cheek.

"This thing is cut-proof and explosion-proof, and the manufacturing cost is only one-tenth of your pile of junk. From now on, the new energy vehicles Morgan builds will only be fit for the landfill."

Energy density tripled, cycle life ten thousand times, cost one-tenth, absolutely safe and never combustible.

With these four figures simultaneously true, all the battery giants present could declare bankruptcy on the spot.

Boss Liu's hands began to tremble, his voice cracking: "A 0.01% power drop over three hundred twenty kilometers—is that a real test or a theoretical calculation?"

"It's real, tested on the road, using this beat-up van dragging a scrapped heavy-duty truck motor and half a ton of iron casing. If you swap it into your streamlined SUVs, the range could even double."

"How far can it actually go on a full charge?"

"You guess."

"One thousand?"

"Too low."

"Two thousand?"

"Keep going."

The tall, thin man next to him chimed in: "Three thousand?"

"Four thousand. It's the size of a brick, weighs a few pounds, no series or parallel connections, just a single unit."

Boss Liu's glasses slid down the bridge of his nose, and he didn't even reach out to catch them.

"What about the cost? How much does your ternary lithium cost per kilowatt-hour?"

"The industry average is a little over four hundred, and cutting it to three hundred eighty is already bleeding money."

Lu Chen held up one finger.

"One hundred?" the tall, thin man guessed.

"Forty."

The female reporter in the back row ran back to the camera, her hands shaking uncontrollably as she faced the lens.

"The livestream has broken 1.2 million viewers! The chat is full of question marks!"

In the corner, Wang Teng walked out from behind the speakers, his steps slow, as he walked to the display stand and looked down at the sawed-open battery.

"How did you do it?" The voice was very soft. "Morgan spent three years, eighty million dollars, six hundred PhDs..."

"I used three days, a dozen junior college students, and a basement."

Wang Teng's mouth twitched, and he turned to walk toward the backstage.

Lu Chen stood up, and Da Biao held his baton to block the surging CEOs.

"Boss Wang, the solid copper door is too hard; you take your time eating it, I won't be keeping you company."

He picked up the microphone, his gaze sweeping across all the media cameras in the venue.

"Today, this piece of junk brick was just a defective product that the aunties at our factory hammered out by hand; I hope you'll forgive the poor display."

"Three days from now, at the Chenguang Electronics Factory park, the real global product launch will be held. Admission is free, and lunch boxes are provided."

He threw the microphone onto the stage, the clattering sound echoing throughout the venue via the speakers.

Lu Chen turned and walked out, with Da Biao clearing the way, and Chen Hao and Big Mouth Liu following with their heads held high. Hundreds of people watched them walk out of the convention center, and no one dared to make a sound.

Sitting in the passenger seat of the large truck, the system notification sounds rang in his mind one after another.

[Ding! Solid-state battery mass production prototype test successful! Overwhelming product advantage achieved.]

[System task settlement, obtained stage reward: Black Tech fully automated packaging production line blueprints.]

[Unlocked special privilege: God-level employee welfare building, construction qualification for Super Health and Wellness Center.]

A fully automated packaging line, with production capacity counted in the hundreds of thousands or millions.

He took out his phone and dialed Lao Zhou.

"Double the bonuses for all 1,500 people in the factory this month. Today, the cafeteria will have extra meals—top-tier Wagyu beef and king crab. Tell Chef Lin to let everyone eat their fill."

Lao Zhou let out a howl on the other end.

"Understood! If the guys hear this news, they'll tear the roof off the factory!"

Chen Hao poked his head out from the back seat.

"Boss, doubling bonuses and buying Wagyu beef—you're burning through money so fast it makes me feel a bit uneasy."

"What's there to be uneasy about? As long as you can keep working, I'll never run out of money."

Lu Chen closed his eyes.

At the same time, at the convention center.

Jason stood on the carpet covered in broken glass, clutching a crumpled printed receipt in his hand.

Energy density tripled, cost one-tenth, absolute resistance to thermal runaway.

His fingers were trembling.

If this thing could be mass-produced, the hundred-billion-level supply chain that Morgan had laid out globally would be scrap metal in three days.

Jason walked into the backstage lounge, locked the door, and dialed a string of numbers on his black satellite phone.

A deep English male voice came from the other end.

"Jason, your progress in China is too slow. The board of directors is very dissatisfied."

"Boss, there's a problem. The physical Solid-state battery has been publicly verified, broadcasted live across the entire internet. It's undeniable, and all the A-level sanction plans have failed."

The person on the other end was silent for five seconds.

An aged but clear voice said only two words.

"Upgrade to S-level."

"Understood. Cut off all their upstream supply chains, freeze foreign-related accounts; the launch conference in three days must not be allowed to happen.

Activate the S-level strangulation order, provide bottom-line funding to that Wang fellow at Tengfei Electronics, and let him be the dog on the front lines."

There was silence on the other end for two seconds.

"Approved. Within three days, I want that electronics factory to disappear from the face of the earth."

The call ended.

Jason looked through the gap in the blinds at the night view of Jiangcheng.

His phone lit up again.

It wasn't a call; it was an encrypted email.

The sender's suffix was ".gov."