QuantumScape continues its slow but constant progress with its solid-state cell platform. After disclosing some test results and getting critics to doubt them, the company asked Mobile Power Solutions to test its single-layer cells. The results are even better than the ones the company disclosed in December 2020.
By then, QuantumScape had its Battery Showcase presentation. The company revealed that its single-layer cells could achieve more than 800 cycles while retaining more than 80% capacity. In a battery pack with a 300-mile range, that would mean that it would work for more than 240,000 miles. According to QuantumScape, that was the commercial target for its cells.
Mobile Power Solutions repeated the tests QuantumScape did last December. They revealed that the three single-layer cells evaluated lost “less than 10%” capacity after 800 cycles. Each cycle corresponds to fully charging and discharging each cell in one hour. Summing up, the QuantumScape single-layer solid-state cells retained more than 90% capacity.
According to the QuantumScape, there are other very positive elements presented by the tests. They were performed at 25ºC (77ºF), which corresponds to room temperature. That would prove “the robustness of a battery’s power capability.” Other solid-state battery technologies, such as LMP (lithium metal polymer), demand high temperatures to work.
The high charge/discharge rates at 1C are much more aggressive than those an electric car would experience in regular use. Retaining more than 90% capacity after doing that 800 times shows the lithium metal platform developed by QuantumScape is robust enough for automotive use.
Although the third-party test is reassuring, QuantumScape still has a long way to go. It now has to test multi-layer cells that are big enough to be used in cars. It also has to develop a manufacturing process that may make them economically feasible. It is not clear if QuantumScape will need a new manufacturing method or use the ones currently available with the same machinery.
The company expects to have all those issues sorted by 2024. Its first factory should be built in Germany and will supply Volkswagen. We’d bet the first car to get solid-state cells will be the Artemis project, from Audi, followed by Project Trinity, from Volkswagen. QuantumScape promises these cells will be cheaper, safer, lighter, more energy-dense, faster to recharge, and more robust. Amen to all that.
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