Solid-state batteries are widely seen as one of the most promising technologies on the table for the future of electric cars: they do not suffer from the same ageing issues, they enable ultra-fast charging, and they offer far higher energy density than lithium-ion alternatives. In practical terms, for the same capacity they weigh less and take up less space.
QuantumScape solid-state batteries and Volkswagen’s long-term backing
One of the companies investing most heavily in this area is the US firm QuantumScape. Around three and a half years ago, the Volkswagen Group invested a further more than €180 million in the business - and the German group has been backing the company since 2012.
PowerCo laboratory testing of solid-state battery cells
To assess how QuantumScape’s solid-state cells perform, testing has been carried out over recent months in PowerCo laboratories - PowerCo is part of the Volkswagen Group. The first results have now been released, and they look highly encouraging.
According to Frank Blome, PowerCo’s chief executive, “these results are very encouraging and impressively underpin the potential of solid-state cells. The end result of this development could be a battery cell capable of offering greater range, very fast charging and that virtually does not age.”
Blome adds: “(…) we will continue working with QuantumScape at full speed, so that these cells can begin series production.”
“These highly encouraging test results are a milestone on the path to series production of the solid-state cell.”
Frank Blome, CEO of PowerCo
As QuantumScape also points out, solid-state batteries are poised to transform electric cars, with its cells having “significantly exceeded performance requirements” in the Volkswagen-run tests.
Test results for solid-state batteries
Among the figures published, Volkswagen notes that the solid-state battery test prototype went through more than 1,000 charging cycles, with almost no impact on performance.
After testing, the cells still retained around 95% of their original energy-storage capacity. The initial target had been 700 cycles with up to a 20% loss of capacity.
That level of durability means that, for an electric car advertised with a range of 500 km to 600 km (WLTP combined cycle), the equivalent total distance would be more than half a million kilometres (500,000 km).
QuantumScape says the tests carried out over recent months in Volkswagen’s PowerCo labs “demonstrate the performance potential of solid-state batteries compared with traditional lithium-ion batteries and other next-generation batteries currently under development”.
The road to series production and the 2025 plan
A final production version is still some way off, even though QuantumScape and Volkswagen are working together to bring the solution to market as quickly as possible.
Initial plans envisaged production starting in 2025, but Volkswagen says the “next step towards series production is to refine and scale the manufacturing processes”. In other words, mass production of this solid-state battery remains several years away.
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