With every year that goes by, the electric vehicle (EV) sector has found it harder to make cars go further, charge faster and better retain capacity. Much of the challenge relates to the incumbent lithium-ion battery technology being used by all automakers today.
The hope has long been that solid-state cells, which do away with liquid electrolytes and reduce other challenges associated with lithium-ion chemistries, are the answer. By all accounts, solid-state batteries are the EV industry’s Holy Grail.
Many have tried to tackle the problem, with limited success in some small-scale applications such as consumer wearables and small medical devices. But industrialising the kind of solid-state batteries needed for the harsh environment of road transportation is a monumental task. Doing so in high volumes and with flawless quality is even harder.
New York-headquartered QuantumScape has been investigating
