Vision Group unveiled LiLic Sidecar at YOTTA 2026 in Las Vegas. It connects directly to an 800V DC busbar and combines two kinds of energy storage in one box. It is the company’s entry into a product category the AI industry is only now creating. The LiLic Sidecar bet is that AI data centers will buy their power gear integrated, not layered.
Its timing is deliberate. The 800V DC transition is happening now, and the standards are still being written.
What LiLic Sidecar is
The unit is designed for high-power-density AI data centers. It connects directly to an 800V DC busbar (±400V) and is compatible with the OCP ORV4 open rack standard.
Its distinguishing feature is the hybrid cell. LiLic Sidecar combines lithium-ion capacitors (LIC), which handle rapid pulse cycling, with lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which provide sustained backup. In a five-module configuration, each cabinet delivers 1MW of rated discharge power and at least 60 seconds of backup at a 1MW load.
The design is “All-in-One”. It folds together functions usually split between a capacitor backup unit (CBU) and a battery backup unit (BBU). It carries an integrated battery management system and DC/DC converter. Modules are hot-swappable, and the cooling scheme pairs immersion cooling with cold plates.
The problem it solves
AI racks are volatile. Training and inference workloads swing power demand in milliseconds, and traditional battery systems respond too slowly to smooth those spikes.
The industry’s answer has been to layer storage by timescale. NVIDIA’s own blueprint describes short-duration storage — capacitors and supercapacitors placed close to the racks — for millisecond spikes. Long-duration storage, such as facility-level batteries, handles slower shifts. Independent engineering work on LIC-plus-BBU hybrids describes the same split: the capacitor handles the millisecond window, the battery handles the minutes.
LiLic Sidecar’s claim is that it does both in one unit. That is a real design choice. Integration saves space and simplifies connections, which is why the company says it reduces the footprint of separately deployed equipment. But combining two storage types in one box also means a single point of design complexity. The industry has largely treated them as separate layers for good engineering reasons.
Where it fits the 800V standard
The context is a genuine industry shift. NVIDIA is moving data centers to 800V DC to support 1MW racks, targeting production alongside its Kyber rack systems in 2027. Google, Microsoft and NVIDIA are standardising the architecture through the Open Compute Project, with more than 80 equipment makers building to the specification.
The relevant piece is OCP’s Mt Diablo specification. It defines the rack-level “sidecar” — a power unit converting AC to ±400V or 800V DC next to the racks. Vertiv’s 800V DC sidecar does the same, delivering up to 900kW directly to the rack and returning rack units to compute.
LiLic Sidecar is a direct play on that concept. Vision Group is positioning a battery-based sidecar for when hyperscalers begin retrofitting existing facilities. That is the fastest path to 800V, because it leaves upstream AC infrastructure in place.
The company behind it
Vision Group is not a startup. It is Shenzhen Center Power Tech Co., Ltd. (SZSE: 002733), founded in 1994 and headquartered in Shenzhen. It makes batteries for UPS, telecom and energy storage across four chemistries, operates five R&D and manufacturing bases, and sells into more than 100 countries.
It claims to lead the global LFP lithium battery market for UPS. Vision Group partners with Eaton, Vertiv, Schneider Electric and Delta — the firms whose systems the sidecar must slot into. That incumbent position is an advantage: it already sells into the data center supply chain.
Its safety credentials are relevant too. In September 2026, the company said its REVO 3.0 backup system passed a large-scale indoor fire test under UL 9540A-2026. It called the test the world’s first of its kind. It reported zero fire propagation between cabinets at 0cm spacing. For batteries in a data hall, that is the kind of evidence buyers ask for.
The wider bet
LiLic Sidecar is one piece of a broader strategy Vision Group calls “All in AIDC.” The portfolio spans HVDC power, already deployed at a hyperscale AI data center in Ulanqab. It also includes a 72kW rack-level BBU and battery energy storage containers up to 6.48MWh.
The competition is real and growing. Infineon has published a 24kW SiC battery backup unit reference design that runs directly on an 800V DC bus, with efficiency above 99%. Delta, Eaton and Vertiv are all building to the same transition. Vision Group’s differentiation is the hybrid cell and the integrated design — not the underlying voltage.
That is the honest reading: Vision Group is a strong component supplier entering a market whose rules are set by NVIDIA, Google and Microsoft. It can win share, but it will not define the architecture.
What to watch
Three markers will show whether LiLic Sidecar becomes a standard part or a show-floor demo.
First, a named deployment. The release describes the product but not a customer. A hyperscale or colocation operator running LiLic Sidecar in production would be the proof.
Second, independent testing. The 1MW and 60-second figures are the company’s own. Third-party validation, especially on transient response, would settle them.
Third, the layered-versus-integrated question. If buyers prefer the standard multi-timescale layering, the “All-in-One” pitch loses its edge. If they value the space and complexity savings, it gains one.
Vision Group has read the 800V transition correctly and shipped a product for it. The harder test is whether the market wants its particular answer.
Editor’s Note
Sources: Vision Group’s release of 4 October 2026 and its Chinese-language companion announcement, plus the company’s corporate profile, product pages and technical materials.
Context on the 800V DC transition is from NVIDIA‘s technical blog and 800 VDC architecture materials, and the Open Compute Project’s joint white paper with Google, Microsoft and NVIDIA. It also draws on Vertiv’s 800V DC sidecar documentation, Network World, SemiAnalysis and independent power-electronics analyses. The LIC-plus-BBU hybrid concept is from independent engineering write-ups and Infineon’s battery backup unit materials. The LiLic Sidecar specifications, the Ulanqab deployment and the fire-test result are as stated by Vision Group. TechRecast has not independently verified the company’s claims.