Volkswagen has invested $300 million in QuantumScape, a quiet California company that has invented a new lithium-metal battery that could provide the convenience missing from today’s electric vehicles.
According to QuantumScape’s test results, the flat battery can charge to 80 percent of capacity in 15 minutes (Tesla’s charged to 90 percent in 37 minutes in a 2019 MotorTrend test) and retain 80 percent of its capacity over 800 charging cycles, which would be about 240,000 miles’ worth of driving.
Based on those numbers, the company calculates its power cell could travel 400 miles on a charge, compared to today’s standard of about 240.
Lithium reacts easily with other materials, so standard lithium batteries keep the lithium isolated from the batteries’ liquid electrolyte. But, over time, the lithium in batteries forms finger-like tendrils that grow out into the battery, break the separation layer between the lithium and electrolyte, and short-circuit the batter or, rarely, cause a fire.
QuantumScape invested five years in developing a solid ceramic electrolyte a few tens of microns thick that is also the separation layer. It blocks the tendrils from invading the electrolyte but doesn’t interfere with the flow of electrons inside the battery.
The company also has built its battery without an anode.
Since batteries were invented, they’ve had two poles: a positive cathode, which sends electrons out through the electrolyte, and a negative anode, which gathers the electrons from the electrolyte and delivers them to an external electrical circuit.
In QuantumScape’s cell, lithium ions flow from the cathode through the ceramic separator directly to the electrical contact at the end of the battery.
Removing the anode cuts the battery’s weight, size, and cost.
QuantumScape says its batteries will be powering electric cars in 2025, although critics doubt the technology’s manufacturing process can evolve to a commercial-scale so quickly.
TRENDPOST: Lithium-metal battery technology has long been known to be superior to lithium-ion batteries but has posed major technical and chemical barriers to development. QuantumScape’s advance, if nothing else, shows that lithium-metal batteries ultimately will replace their lithium-ion ancestors.
