At the beginning of the new year of 2024, there is a series of good news in the field of solid-state batteries, involving technological breakthroughs, enterprise cooperation, and project start-up. These are signs that the commercialization of solid-state batteries is accelerating. Recently, there has been exciting news from Quantumscape (QS), a start-up solid-state battery company in the United States.
QS all-solid-state batteries have passed the durability test.
One year after delivering the solid-state battery prototype to a partner, the QS all-solid-state battery passed the 500,000 km endurance test of Volkswagen AG. This breakthrough lays the foundation for its application in the field of electric vehicles.
QS was founded in 2010 by scientists from Stanford University in San Jose, USA, focusing on the research of solid-state lithium-metal batteries, aiming to improve battery performance and safety. Its solid-state battery electrolyte adopts the oxide solid-state electrolyte route. In November 2020, QS successfully listed on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of SPAC through the acquisition of Kensington Capital.
As early as 2012, QS began working with Volkswagen of Germany. In 2018, Volkswagen invested US$100 million to become QS's largest shareholder, and in the same year announced a joint production project to prepare for large-scale solid-state battery production. In June 2020, Volkswagen made another $200 million investment in QS to help it build a solid-state battery production line by 2025.
On October 25, 2023, QS updated the solid-state battery test data, in which the battery tested by the vehicle customer is an A0 sample with a capacity of about 38ah, a total of 24 layers of pole pieces, the positive surface capacity is 31mAh square centimeter, according to the test conditions of C 3 charge and C 2 discharge, the capacity retention rate of 1000 cycles at 100% DOD is still 95%.
It is worth mentioning that, according to the information on the official website of QS, the company's investors also include Bill Gates, SAIC, Continental, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Qatar Investment Authority, etc.
How are solid-state battery companies progressing?
In addition to QS, there are a number of startups in the U.S. that are focused on solid-state battery technology, including Solid Power, Factorial Energy, and Lonic Materials.
Founded in 2011 as a branch of the University of Colorado, Solid Power completed the installation of a pilot line in the summer of 2022. The pilot line will automate the production of all-solid-state battery cells using the company's sulfide-based solid-state electrolyte materials. It is estimated that the pilot line will have a full capacity of about 15,000 cells per year.
In November last year, Solid Power announced the successful production of the first solid-state battery cells and delivered the sample to BMW. BMW plans to launch its first prototype using Solid Power technology by 2025.
Based in Massachusetts, Factorial Energy specializes in the design and development of high-performance solid-state batteries. On October 23, 2023, it officially launched a solid-state battery manufacturing plant in the suburbs of Boston, with a total investment of $50 million and a maximum annual production capacity of 200MWh. The plant is expected to be the largest solid-state battery manufacturing facility in the United States.
Lonic Materials, also based in Massachusetts, has received investments from Hyundai Motor Company and Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi. Renault also plans to launch an electric vehicle in 2025 using zero-diamond solid-state battery technology from Lonic Materials, which will be supported by Lonic Materials.
Brief summary. From the delivery of solid-state battery samples by Solid Power to BMW, to the endurance test of the QS through Volkswagen, it is still difficult to determine who will be the first to overcome the technical difficulties of solid-state batteries and successfully apply solid-state batteries to production vehicles. However, what is certain is that thanks to the efforts of these companies, solid-state battery electric vehicles are one step closer to us.
*: TrendForce Lithium.