QuantumScape is one of the few companies in the world working on the hard problem of figuring out solid state batteries.
The battery maker will have Volkswagen as a customer.
QuantumScape which is one of the preeminent companies working on solid-state batteries has announced that it has successfully created a battery that can 80 percent fast charge in 15 minutes whose cells have completed 400 consecutive charge cycles. To be precise the charging cycle of these batteries is from 10 percent to 80 percent. QuantumScape has been backed by the Volkswagen group and Bill Gates amongst a few after being founded in 2010. It went public via a SPAC merger with Kensington Capital Acquisition last year. It had already developed a 10 layered cell and a new technology that featured a ceramic separator and has been working on a multiple layer solid-state battery at its QS-0 pre-pilot production line in 2023.
In its white paper study, it has conducted tests on commercially relevant sizes with a single layer prototype with battery cells at temperatures between 25 degrees and 45 degrees at 3.4 atmospheres of pressure and 100 percent depth of charge. The result was that the battery completed 400 cycles of 15 minutes fast charges from 10 to 80 percent. 400 cycles of charge on an EV with an average range of 483 km equals to around 1,93,200 km over a lifespan of a vehicle which is more than 10 years of running for most people.
Jagdeep Singh, the CEO of QuantumScape hails from New Delhi
Currently, fast charging on EVs takes two times the time without degrading the longevity of the cell. We believe QuantumScape’s lithium-metal technology provides a pathway to significantly improved fast-charging performance in EVs. We believe innovations like this are crucial to narrowing the performance gap between EVs and combustion-engine based vehicles and represent the future of the electrified transportation sector,” said QuantumScape CEO Jagdeep Singh.
QuantumScape is being viewed as one of the foreleaders of the new type of battery technology which is why people like Bill Gates and Volkswagen as a group have backed it. In fact, Volkswagen envisions many of its future vehicles to hardness its technology for its EVs.