Battery Strategy Is Becoming Product Strategy
At CES 2026, it was increasingly difficult to describe the wave of new devices with a single label. From GPS-enabled electric golf push carts, to “smart mirrors” that can estimate lifespan, storytelling robots that speak fluently with children, and robotic vacuum cleaners equipped with flying arms—product concepts have clearly moved into a more fluid and experimental phase.
What we observed is a broad emergence of lighter, more personalized, and more continuously connected devices across categories. From GPS-enabled consumer hardware and medical devices to children’s audio products, industrial handheld tools, and even security systems, a shared pattern is becoming increasingly visible: product forms are still taking shape, use cases continue to expand, and iteration remains rapid.
As a result, while companies appear to compete on features, interaction design, connectivity, and intelligence, the first bottleneck to surface in mass production, delivery, and long-term use is rarely the most visible module but the battery.
1. Battery Risk Is Being Reshaped by Real-World Scenarios
In the past, when designing consumer electronics, batteries were often treated as a “good enough” component. As long as they worked, that was enough. But at CES, several manufacturers told us that their definition of a “problem-free” battery has shifted. Passing certification alone is no longer enough; what matters is whether the battery can remain stable in real-world usage, particularly in terms of battery life and safety performance.
Taking industrial devices as an example, handheld terminals used for precious metal detection, gas sensing, and mineral tracking often need to operate in far more demanding environments. In the IoT and smart home space, the challenge is less about immediate performance and more about long-term stability, as many devices are installed once and expected to remain online around the clock with minimal maintenance.
For GPS trackers, wearables, and certain pet devices, the requirements converge around miniaturization, lightweight design, and extended uptime. Devices closer to everyday use, such as early education products and consumer devices, are far more sensitive to temperature rise, swelling risks, and overall safety. Meanwhile, medical devices, aesthetic treatment equipment, and robotics impose even stricter demands on battery consistency, stability, and safety margins. Even minor temperature increases, physical deformation, or performance fluctuations can directly affect user experience and, in some cases, introduce elevated safety risks.
As a result, battery safety is no longer a matter of a single component. It has become a key variable that can lead to safety hazards, degraded user experience, financial losses, and even reputational damage for brands.
This is not an overstatement. In a recall case disclosed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a children’s wearable smart thermometer was found to carry risks of overheating and leakage of corrosive chemicals, which could potentially lead to skin irritation, burns, other serious injuries, and even death.
Separately, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reported that a smartwatch company received at least 115 overheating complaints and 78 burn reports in the United States, including second- and third-degree burns, due to battery overheating issues. The company was later fined USD12.25 million for failing to promptly disclose the severity of the risk.
What is becoming clear is that batteries are no longer just a cost-driven, margin-squeezed component, but a core factor underpinning product safety and brand trust.
2. The Traditional Battery Procurement Logic Is Breaking Down
Not long ago, manufacturers had relatively fixed requirements for batteries: capacity, dimensions, cost, safety standards, and cycle life. Once a product design was finalized, these parameters were largely set. But as end-product forms evolve rapidly, this traditional framework is starting to break down.
Today, manufacturers’ concerns go far beyond specifications. They care most about what could happen in worst-case scenarios.
What happens under overcharge conditions? What if the battery is stored at full charge for an extended period? In extreme scenarios such as drops, compression, puncture, high temperature, or aging, can the battery still maintain safety and stability?
These are questions that cannot be answered by a specification sheet alone, nor can they be resolved through a single compliance test.
This is also why an increasing number of device manufacturers are beginning to redefine what they expect from battery suppliers. In particular over the past few years, many new teams entering the hardware space come from software, platform, or cross-industry innovation backgrounds. They tend to place a much higher emphasis on user experience and the pace of product iteration.
Many products undergo constant iterations and revisions, with structural designs and user usage patterns evolving all the time. Some are pushing for longer battery life, some are constrained by weight and size, and others need to operate in more demanding environments.
These requirements are often difficult to define upfront. For battery manufacturers, both the customers and the products are becoming more fragmented, more varied, and more complex to support. Standardized solutions often no longer fit, while customized approaches call for early supplier engagement. In some cases, customers are even asking battery suppliers to participate directly in product design.
3.What Kind of Battery Partner Does the Next Generation of Products Need?
After these changes, one type of company is becoming increasingly important: not a supplier that simply offers standard battery models, but a partner that can develop battery solutions around specific use cases.
Guangdong Zhaoneng Technology Co., Ltd. （ZERNE） falls into the latter category.
As a family-owned business with nearly three decades of history, many of ZERNE’s practices might appear somewhat “old-fashioned” by industry standards: proactively disclosing potential risks rather than waiting for clients to notice; refusing to sacrifice reliability for short-term orders; and before any formal agreements are signed, the team often makes multiple trips between its Chinese factories and overseas clients, all at its own expense. The goal is to fully engage in every stage of the client's product development and production process……These approaches reflect the philosophy ingrained by the company's founder, who spent decades in the battery industry — building deep technical expertise and manufacturing know-how while embedding a commitment to long-term thinking into the company's culture.
Currently, ZERNE has completed its generational transition and is run by its second-generation leadership, this is more than a change in management. The family's philosophy of long-term value creation has become part of the company's DNA, carried forward in full through the generational shift.The new generation holds to that core, while bringing a more global perspective, a more structured approach to project management, and a sharper eye for emerging applications.
From the founder's hands-on approach to the more structured management of the new generation, the methods have changed, but the 'old-fashioned' logic behind getting things done has stayed the same.
This commitment to long-term principles is what has earned ZERNE a client base of over 10,000 companies worldwide. The company serves diverse sectors, including industrial handheld devices, medical equipment, early education products, smart home products, beauty devices, consumer devices, IoT devices, and robotics. ZERNE has also established lasting partnerships with leading hearing aid manufacturers and some of the top 10 GPS tracker brands.
Beyond its multi-generational heritage, what sets ZERNE apart is that it starts from the end-use scenario and defines the product solution together with the client. The team typically begins with on-site visits to the client's overseas facility, where they discuss how the product is used, its design requirements and pain points, and review the full production line. After obtaining a complete device sample, ZERNE disassembles, tests, and analyzes the unit, then proposes a battery solution based on the product's usage patterns, structural constraints, and operating environment. A single project often goes through two to three rounds of iteration before it is ready for production.
While this approach may seem more time-consuming and costly, it essentially brings risk management forward. What ZERNE provides is not merely the battery itself, but a set of safety-first, customized development capabilities.
Pet GPS device is a good example. Many device makers initially focus on battery life, but once the device enters real-world use, the challenges shift quickly. Pets generate frequent impacts and drops during movement, and may even chew on the device itself. The stress these behaviors place on battery structures far exceeds what laboratory testing can simulate.
Rather than simply swapping out the cells, ZERNE redesigned the battery solution around how the device is actually used. The company adopted a 4.45V high-voltage battery with a 3,000mAh capacity and introduced a double-sided ceramic separator in the winding process to better withstand physical impact and reduce the risk of fire. On top of this, ZERNE worked with the client to run tests that more closely reflected actual use, including 10 drop tests from 1.5 meters at varying angles and 504 tumble tests from 0.5 meters. Results showed no external damage, no internal tab fractures, normal voltage and internal resistance readings, stable charge-discharge performance, and no jelly roll displacement. The entire solution went through multiple rounds of iteration and validation before it was ready for mass production.
If front-end solution design determines whether a product can be built, then delivery capability determines whether it can be built consistently. On the production side, ZERNE takes an engineering-driven approach to process control: every battery that leaves the factory carries a unique QR code linked to key data points, enabling full traceability and data sharing.
In the quality inspection process, ZERNE holds itself to international standards. It uses X-ray equipment to examine internal battery structures and identify potential defects, and uses positive-pressure equipment to screen every single unit for seal integrity and electrolyte leakage.
Rather than focusing only on the finished product, ZERNE prioritizes catching risks before they leave the factory — which is a key reason behind its high standards in safety monitoring and quality control.
4. Semi-Solid Batteries: A Safer Choice for High-Risk Applications
Children’s smart devices often face more safety challenges than ordinary consumer electronics devices.
During the implementation of a project, a European children's device manufacturer found that its existing conventional polymer lithium battery solution, while having passed basic testing and certification, still posed abnormal heating risks at high charge levels. The company turned to ZERNE for an improved solution.
Because the product was designed for children, the client's safety requirements were significantly higher than those for general electronics. In response, ZERNE raised the evaluation standards from "passing certification" to "remaining safe and reliable under extreme conditions such as high charge states, aging, and physical damage," and on that basis incorporated semi-solid batteries into its custom solution.
It is precisely in scenarios with extremely high safety requirements that the value of semi-solid batteries becomes apparent. Compared with conventional liquid lithium batteries, semi-solid batteries offer greater material stability. Under extreme conditions such as nail penetration, overcharging, short-circuiting, and crushing, semi-solid batteries remain non-ignitable and non-combustible, delivering superior safety performance — making them well suited for products that demand high thermal stability and generous safety margins.
Based on its assessment of high-safety applications, ZERNE is also continuing to advance its semi-solid battery technology. Beyond children's devices, semi-solid batteries are equally applicable to pet devices, industrial handhelds, medical equipment, IoT terminals, security systems, and other fields where safety standards are stringent. For these products, the semi-solid battery represents more than a simple technology upgrade — it is a system-level improvement designed for scenarios where safety is the top priority.
5. Capability Beyond Product Delivery
ZERNE's capabilities go beyond the product itself. The company holds a wide range of international certifications — including UL, RoHS, REACH, KC, PSE, IEC 62133, CB, IEEE, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, and BSCI — helping clients navigate global market access requirements more efficiently and cutting down on the time and cost of repeated certification trials.
In terms of service, ZERNE maintains a highly proactive approach. Its management team conducts regular client visits worldwide, arriving on-site within two to three days for urgent production issues. This reflects not just after-sales responsiveness, but a custom-focused company's commitment to project coordination and long-term relationships.
At the same time, ZERNE does not see itself as merely a battery supplier. For new product projects with growth potential, the company is willing to co-develop with clients and, when necessary, participate through funding support or investment partnerships. For ZERNE, this kind of collaboration is not just about a single battery, it is about building closer working relationships around product definition, solution refinement, and long-term implementation.
Compared with many suppliers whose focus ends at delivery, ZERNE prioritizes long-term trust over short-term orders. It turned down orders worth millions of RMB when clients couldn't accept the cost increases required for safety solutions, and rejected substitution requests for lower-grade materials in multi-million-dollar deals. For ZERNE, maintaining a mid-to-high-end positioning and upholding safety and quality standards outweighs any pursuit of short-term gains.
6. Battery Strategy Is Becoming Product Strategy
For companies building the next generation of hardware, choosing a battery solution is becoming a more complex decision. It is no longer just about capacity and cost. It now involves product safety, user trust, global compliance, and supply chain resilience. Consequently, The true value of battery partners who understand real-world applications, balance safety and performance effectively, and commit to long-term collaboration is increasingly being recognized.