Solid-State Battery Developer Signs A US$20 Million Deal With BMW to Produce Pilot Electrodes

BMW's long-term investment in the US company Solid Power's research on solid-state batteries appears to be paying off at last. The two businesses will collaborate to produce a trial batch of solid-state battery cells in Germany. Thanks to its long-standing cooperation with Solid Power, based in Louisville, Colorado, BMW is moving forward with its solid-state battery pilot production plans. BMW will license the manufacture of the electrodes and cell design of the US company's proprietary solid-state battery technology from Solid Power, whose proprietary sulfide-based electrolyte will continue to be its intellectual property. As long as the prototype solid-state battery line that BMW will create in Germany meets specific manufacturing targets, Solid Power will get US$20 million from BMW until June 2024. Frank Weber, a member of the management board at BMW AG, claims that development: BMW is still dedicated to the development of all-solid-state batteries because we think this technology has a bright future. We're looking forward to collaborating with Solid Power even more closely and adding the ability to manufacture solid-state cells based on their ideas at our own pilot facility. We anticipate that this arrangement will hasten the installation of our solid-state prototype line and the shared objective of our businesses, which is to market this promising cell technology. Although Solid Power and Svolt are not the only businesses to successfully pursue 20Ah cells, they have already begun sending the batteries to their partners for validation, including longtime backer BMW. In order to begin the process of certifying its solid-state battery technology for industrial automotive usage, it will shortly build up a production plant for its unique solid-state electrolyte. [caption id="attachment_53668" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] BMW[/caption] Honda, Ford, Toyota, Nissan, and many more legacy automakers have all indicated their desire to develop and create their own solid-state batteries internally, making BMW not the only established carmaker to disclose development on this potential EV battery technology. Although Chinese battery companies have claimed solid-state battery breakthroughs, BMW appears to be one of the first automakers to genuinely plan pilot production in the near future with the assistance of Solid Power. The largest EV battery manufacturer in the world, CATL, predicted that mass production of solid-state batteries wouldn't begin until 2030, but the industry is developing at such a rapid rate that manufacturing validation may occur sooner, ushering in a period of reliable and reasonably priced EV batteries with high energy densities.