Actually, it should have happened last year, but now it won’t happen until 2025: The listed battery startup QuantumScape, in which an Austrian was also involved in founding, has announced that it will be producing its solid state batteries from 2025 wants to produce a series. So far, only prototypes in various stages of development have been delivered to unspecified car manufacturers so that they can test them.
“The Alpha-2 deliveries are an important milestone on our path to commercialization,” said Siva Sivaram, who recently joined QuantumScape as CEO from battery maker Western Digital. “Customer feedback is the most important input in the product development cycle as it provides insight into areas for improvement and strengthens collaboration. The faster we can get new product iterations into the hands of customers, the faster we can get to production. We are very encouraged by the initial performance results of the Alpha-2 and look forward to the first QSE-5 cells, which we expect to produce later this year.”
QuantumScape is one of several companies vying to launch solid state batteries (SSBs). These promise a higher energy density compared to today’s common lithium-ion batteries. This means that electric cars could have a longer range and faster charging times, while also becoming cheaper and safer. No wonder, Volkswagen, the Qatar Investment Authority (also heavily invested in VW), Fidelity, and Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures have long been invested in QuantumScape. JB Straubel, who once co-founded Tesla and now runs the battery recycler Redwood Materials, also sits on the supervisory board.
QuantumScape is delivering the first solid-state batteries for testing purposes
Toyota, CATL and Co are also working on solid-state batteries
QuantumScape has come under pressure, and not just since the short seller attack in 2021 (more on that here), which raised considerable doubts about the technology. Large companies such as Toyota, BYD and battery market leader CATL are now also busy developing their own SSBs and bringing them onto the market. Toyota, for example, wants to bring “super batteries” onto the market from 2027 – and it would only be right for Volkswagen if QuantumScape could do this faster.
In any case, QuantumScape will continue to build and deliver Alpha 2 prototypes to automotive customers in the coming months while it focuses on improving reliability and increasing production, it said in a release. Small series production of the QSE-5 prototype is scheduled to start in 2024, and otherwise there is a lot of preparation for large series production of the solid-state electrolyte separator, which is scheduled to begin in 2025. However, series production was repeatedly pushed back – now it will be exciting to see whether the company can finally keep to its schedule.
On the stock market, QuantumScape is now only a shadow of its former self. The price of the share, currently around $6, is miles away from the $115 that was paid for the paper at its peak in 2020. In the end, the company must be able to deliver on its promises.
Toyota wants to bring solid state batteries onto the market from 2027