Prior to going public, QuantumScape raised $380 million from Volkswagen and additional investments ... [+]
QuantumScape, a battery startup backed by Volkswagen and Bill Gates, said Tuesday that its electric vehicle batteries will charge faster and hold more power for longer periods than most EV batteries currently on the market.
The company’s solid-state lithium-ion batteries will allow drivers to charge their vehicles to about 80% of capacity in 15 minutes. They also should last about 12 years in an electric vehicle with range of at least 300 miles in normal driving conditions.
The San Jose-based startup also said it expects its batteries to perform well in sub-zero (Fahrenheit) or -30 degress (Celsius) temperatures.
Until now, lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles faced compromises between performance and temperature. Most EVs available today use “wet” lithium-ion batteries, which use liquid electrolytes to move energy around.
That means they can be slow to charge, freeze in subzero temperatures and possibly contain flammable material that presents the risk of fires in the event of a crash.
The company just went public last month through a special purpose acquisition corporation, an entity created for the sole purpose of merging with another company to take it public.
Prior to going public, QuantumScape raised $380 million from Volkswagen and additional investments from Bill Gates, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Khosla Ventures and KPCB.
Volkswagen executives Juergen Leohold and Frank Blome are on QuantumScape’s board of directors. Volkswagen intends fund a joint venture to manufacture QuantumScape’s batteries and install them in a vehicle by 2025.
While Tuesday’s announcement may give Volkswagen a competitive advantage for now, JB Straubel, former Tesla
Jagdeep Singh, QuantumScape’s CEO and co-founder, is betting that the electric vehicle battery market will someday account for a majority of global new vehicle sales. But today it represents less than 3%.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts that EVs and plug-in hybrids will grow to about 35% of global light-vehicle sales by 2040.
“The hardest part about making a working solid-state battery is the need to simultaneously meet the requirement of high-energy density, fast charging, long life cycle, while maintaining 300-plus-mile range even in cold temperatures,” said Stan Whittingham, co-inventor of the lithium-ion battery and winner of the 2019 Nobel prize in chemistry, in a statement. “This data shows QuantumScape’s cells meet all of those requirements.”
Singh said a full transition from internal combustion engines to batteries won’t happen unless the cost is lower and performance of EVs are equal to or greater than ICE’s.
“Today’s batteries are not competitive. They don’t have the energy density to get the range that’s needed. They don’t have the power to get the fast charge,” Singh said “Today’s best batteries take about an hour to charge where it’s obviously easy to re-fuel a gas car in 5 or 10 minutes.”
QuantumScape’s battery is about the size of a deck of cards. That contrasts with the battery packs found in Tesla’s models that take up much more space and range between 1,000 and 1,200 pounds. The Chevrolet Bolt battery pack weighs about 960 pounds.
But the competition will remain fierce in development of EV battery technology.
All automakers are moving fast to raise the density and reduce the size of its battery packs. LG Chem and Samsung of South Korea, BYD and CATL of China, and Japan’s Panasonic are also in the thick of battle.
