Solid State EV Battery Tech: Reality vs Hype (Solid Power Batteries)

Asking the real questions and critically examining the answers. This is what technical journalism should be like. Great work keep it up.

Your viewing them from rose colored glasses. I know it's cool to have a company treating you nicely but you can't just read off their corporate PR like its for sure facts. I am skeptical.

6:05 - They did NOT answer your question about what the limiting factor in scaling production is (unless you accidentally edited it out). Huge red flag 🚩🚩

You asked the right questions. Well done! 1000 cycles isn't good enough for automotive applications, alas. I suspect Solid Power will struggle to do much better than that. And if they can't use cell cans, then the production costs will never fall to $50 per kilowatt-hour on any time horizon I can anticipate. Cans are just better for mass production - cheaper, faster, less capital-intense. I do appreciate the fact that they are less inclined to hype their tech than their rivals, whose breathless declarations strike me as having only one purpose - to boost their stock prices. Thanks for the deep dive!

Great job on the vid, very informative. One thing not covered is cold weather performance compared to Li. Cold weather range a huge factor for EV acceptance in cold weather climates.

Thanks for the informative presentation. I would enjoy seeing a similar review of what Quantumscape's technology is like.

Funny, I got the opposite impression from the video. Impressive improvements for automobile Li-On batteries can be achieved merely by well understood packaging and chassis integration improvements while sold state batteries will require much technological development. Presumably the invisible hand of the market will pick the winner.

Thank you for such a good presentation! If they manage 400 Wh/Kg in 2022, we are closer to the magic number for middle range air travel with existing electric aircrafts.

Always high quality, thx!

Great content in this video. I wish there was another company to juxtapose the statements put out by solid power but great content all the same. I look forward to seeing the follow up interview.

Thank you for making this video. And thank you for keeping it real.

Great update and I am glad to hear that Solid Power is moving along. They are 'neighbors' in the tech park on the other side of an open area from our development.

Hello! Thanks for putting this together - great work. I have a few questions on the cost slide: 1. What reference are they taking for industry standard $85.6/kWh? Is this on the cell level? Seems lower than the current $100/kWh which only a few companies have hit 2. Are material savings coming only from the elimination of graphite? Does it represent the net value (typically the cost of the solid electrolyte is much higher than the liquid counterpart)? 3. What specifically are they referring to in terms of cathode improvement (higher Nickel?) and process optimization?

Thanks for digging into this, but you're missing things like charge rate and hot/cold weather performance. These two things are mentioned in QuantumScape's presentation and I'd be interested in how Solid Power stacks up (no pun intended) to the claims made by QuantumScape.

Great vid. Thanks! SolidPower seem legit and not just full of marketing fluff. A few observations and questions. Did you ask SolidPower (SP) about their volumetric energy density? On the cost projections (from BNEF) they start w a lithium-ion cell cost of $85.60 per kwh. This seems very low (maybe lowest possible price currently in the market and not average) so their cost estimate ends up unrealistically low and too close to Teslas 4680 projections. Also, the production process shows slurry mixing and drying. 4680 does away w this (I know this is supposed to be current/conventional methods). The SP process does seem to have a large advantage when it comes to formation. This is the first realistic projections of SSB I have seen (not saying there are not others that are kept quiet). But having a MWh scale pilot plant vs Teslas GWh scale pilot plant tells us where the action will be fir the foreseeable future. Thanks again!! Keep up the good work.

Very eloquent delivery of information that can be assimilated by layman mind. Thanks for information on solid state EV battery.

Might, could, should -- key terms from Marketing. "Once all the technical issues are solved" -- yes that's the rub. Hope so.

Excellent and informative video! I still think solid state will be the future EV battery technology, but it’s amazing to see how close Tesla is getting with their 4680 cells. Either way, if another automaker brings a solid state battery to market with these specs, they’ll be hugely competitive.

Sometimes I think we may achieve cold fusion before a true, easily manufactured and reasonably priced SS battery hits the market.

Jon In the comparison at 7:00 you mentioned the "typical wet process". The "wet process" doesn't refer to electrolyte, but the "slurry" mixing (and drying) which is still apparently part of the Solid Power process. As mentioned at Battery Day, that is the first advantage of the upcoming Tesla cells, be that in 4680, OR 2170 format (nobody has considered that they may retrofit just the "front end" of existing factories to eliminate the wet process for 2170?) That wet process will be one limiting factor (Hey Jordan!) For Solid Power cells. They also indicated "pouch cells only" (good question!) at least for now, limiting the potential production speed (GWh) increase that Tesla will see from 4680 format. Note they were comparing to a "conventional' pouch cell and pricing that at $85.6/kWh (optimistic?) They (you?) Then take the Bloomberg estimate (odd?) Projecting -40% cheaper, arriving at $51.7/kWh. Who has this $85.6 pouch cell? Even Tesla isn't at that level yet? My understanding was that "conventional" cells are well above $100/kWh with Tesla at about 100.