Solid-state battery developer inks US$20 million deal with BMW for pilot electrode production

BMW is moving ahead with its solid-state battery pilot production plans, thanks to its long-standing partnership with Solid Power, based in Louisville, Colorado. The US company has a proprietary solid-state battery technology which BMW will licence the manufacturing of the electrodes and cell design of, while Solid Power will be delivering its custom sulfide-based electrolyte which will remain its intellectual property.

Solid Power will be paid US$20 million by BMW until June 2024, as long as the prototype solid-state battery line that BMW would establish in Germany hits certain manufacturing goals. According to Frank Weber, Member of the Board of Management BMW AG, Development:

BMW remains committed to the pursuit of all-solid-state batteries, a technology which we believe has significant potential for the future. We look forward to working even more closely with Solid Power and adding the capability to produce solid-state cells based on Solid Power’s designs at our own pilot facility. We expect this agreement to accelerate the installation of our solid-state prototype line and our companies' mutual goal of commercializing this promising cell technology.

Solid Power is not the only company to have successfully pursued 20Ah cells, as so is Svolt, but it has already started delivering the batteries to its partners for validation, including to its long-time investor BMW. It will be firing up a production facility for its proprietary solid-state electrolyte soon, so as to start going through the motions of certifying its solid-state battery technology for commercial automotive use.

BMW is not the only legacy automaker that has announced work on this promising EV battery technology, as Honda, Ford, Toyota, Nissan, and many others have also stated their desire to develop and produce their own solid-state battery in-house. With Solid Power's help, however, BMW seems to be one of the first carmakers to actually plan pilot production in the foreseeable future, this side of Chinese battery companies that have declared solid-state battery breakthroughs.

The world's biggest EV battery maker CATL was of the opinion that mass solid-state battery production won't happen before 2030, but the industry is moving at such a rapid pace that manufacturing validation may happen earlier, ushering in an era of safe and affordable EV batteries with high energy densities.

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