The development of battery power will determine how far the development of new energy vehicles can go, said Xin Guobin, vice head of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), at a conference about battery innovation in Beijing on Tuesday.

Xin revealed that to improve the reliability, stability, and security of high energy density cells will be the emphasis in the next phase of work. Enterprises will also be encouraged to develop solid-state batteries and other new technologies, Xin added.

According to Xin, China’s scale and shipment of batteries are both leading the world. He attributed the improvement of vehicle performances and competitiveness to technology development and cost reduction, saying the country’s industries are moving forward in a healthy direction and gradually gaining an edge in international competition.

China produced 64.5 billion RMB ($9.7 billion) worth of battery power in 2016, exceeding that of traditional lithium ion batteries for the first time.

Chinese consulting agency Shenzhen Gaogong Industry Research Co., Ltd. predicted that demand for new energy batteries will experience rapid growth in the next five years. It is estimated that the production of battery power in China will hit 141GWh by 2020, compared with 30.8GWh in 2016.

With the expanding market of electric vehicles, the amount of scrap batteries will surge in the next couple of years. China scrapped a total of 12,000 tons of batteries in 2016, and the figure is estimated to reach 248,000 tons in 2020.