As we shift away from gas- and diesel-powered engines and toward electrification, a recurring problem comes up: Batteries are heavy, and toptechtrends.com/2023/06/14/why-are-they-getting-bigger/”>heavy is the enemy of efficiency. The quest for cheaper, lighter, more efficient, and safer batteries becomes increasingly necessary, and there’s a research rush happening right now.
You only have to look at the billions of dollars that car manufacturers — including Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and VW — have poured into battery-focused research and development to see the destination and the drive. In a nutshell: There’s a lot going on.
Movers and shakers on the battery circuit
The pursuit of better EV batteries has lasted for years, both inside the R&D labs at the automotive manufacturers and out in startup land.
toptechtrends.com/2022/04/08/nissans-first-solid-state-ev-planned-for-2028/”>Nissan has prototyped its own solid-state battery at its factory in Yokohama, Japan, which it hopes can go into production by 2028. Other car manufacturers have opted to put their funds into powering startups.
toptechtrends.com/2021/11/30/stellantis-mercedes-benz-invest-in-solid-state-battery-developer-factorial-energy/”>Factorial Energy, which emerged from stealth in April 2021, has an investment and partnership deal with Hyundai and Kia to co-develop and test battery tech in Hyundai EVs. However, it also has joint collaboration agreements with Mercedes-Benz, which was a “double-digit million-dollar investment” and an unspecified investment from Stellantis, which it hopes will see a rollout of solid-state technology in 2026. Based in Woburn, Massachusetts, Factorial has operations in South Korea and Japan and a subsidiary in Germany that was announced in March 2023.
toptechtrends.com/2023/07/11/solid-state-ev-batteries/”>The quest for solid-state EV batteries by toptechtrends.com/author/haje-jan-kamps-2/”>Haje Jan Kamps originally published on toptechtrends.com/”>TechCrunch
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