NEW YORK – Electric cars are supposed to be the future, but they still have issues that keep many car buyers away. The range is too short. Batteries are very heavy and expensive. It takes a long time to charge. But a number of companies say they have the technology to solve many, perhaps all, of these problems.
Toyota, in particular, has said it may be on the cusp of such a breakthrough. Other automakers are also working with different battery companies on versions of this new technology.
This potential breakthrough is called the “solid-state battery” and the only problem is that – like a lot of vaunted Earth-changing technologies – for a few years now, it's always been just a few years away.
Car companies, including Stellantis, Hyundai and Volkswagen, have also teamed up with companies working on solid-state batteries. This technology holds the promise of smaller, lighter batteries while providing more power. They can be safer with less chance of catching fire in the event of an accident as well.
But solid-state technology has its own challenges, and it's not the only way automakers can produce electric cars that are lighter, cheaper and faster to charge.
Battery basics
The main difference between a solid-state battery and the lithium-ion batteries currently used in electric vehicles is a component known as the electrolyte. In a lithium-ion battery, the electrolyte is a viscous liquid. In a solid-state battery, the electrolyte is a solid substance. This solid electrolyte is one of the reasons why solid-state batteries are safer than lithium-ion batteries. If a liquid electrolyte battery is broken or punctured, both sides of the electrolyte can leak together, which can result in an uncontrolled power flow, followed by a fire.
In general, solids are also denser than liquids which means the electrolyte takes up less space and the battery cells can be smaller. But some companies are working on other strategies as well that could make batteries smaller and lighter, as well as charge faster.
The main challenge facing all of these companies and the automakers they have invested in is how to economically produce these high-tech batteries in the numbers needed to build affordable electric cars. At the same time, there are competing battery technologies whose manufacturing techniques are well established.
It's a field that is now widely open with a number of startups each working with different chemical compositions and even slightly different physical structures for their batteries. There is still no clearly superior technology, said William Kephart, a battery researcher at consulting firm P3 Group. Fast charging times, a major consumer demand, are one of the challenges facing solid-state batteries. In general, the lithium ions in currently used batteries take longer to move through a solid than a liquid, Kephart said. This makes it take longer to receive power, which slows charging times and makes power release slower – affecting the car's acceleration.
Solid-state battery company Quantumscape claims that its solid-state batteries — which use some liquids but not electrolytes — have been tested and can charge faster than typical lithium-ion batteries.
Solid-state batteries tend to be more expensive because they contain more lithium, which is expensive, Kephart said. He said lithium prices will come down as more sources are found and accessed, but compared to other batteries, solid-state batteries tend to cost more.
A company called Factorial, which counts Stellantis and Mercedes as investors, claims that its solid-state battery technology uses less lithium than conventional batteries, which could lead to lower costs, especially as production increases.
“We think the cost will be really competitive because lithium, just from a raw material perspective, is not a rare material,” said Siu Huang, CEO of Factorial.
Quantumscape also says its battery design eliminates graphite, which reduces expenses, and the company claims it significantly reduces carbon emissions from manufacturing.
other options
Meanwhile, some other battery companies are working on improving traditional liquid electrolyte batteries, improvements that could make this current technology even better. Simply changing one piece of battery by adding silicon can lead to significant performance improvements at a relatively low cost. This is proposed by a company called OneD Battery Sciences, which GM has invested in.
OneD technology allows production processes to remain virtually the same while promising significant performance improvements, according to the company. This means fewer problems and expenses for battery manufacturers and automakers.
Other companies are working on semi-solid batteries that combine parts of each type of battery, providing some of the benefits of solid-state without completely eliminating the standard liquid-based design.
GM spokesman Phil Lehnert said that ultimately, there probably won't be one battery technology used in all electric vehicles. The type of batteries will be matched to the vehicle and the specific market in which it is sold. It's similar to how automakers use different engines in different models and in different markets. GM's Ultium electric vehicle design, which underlies all of GM's electric vehicle models, is specifically designed to enable the use of all different types of batteries.
“When you have a customer group as large and diverse as ours, you need multiple solutions that can coexist” within the same basic architecture, he said.
