QuantumScape’s Solid State (Lithium Metal) Battery Has Investors, Environmentalists Excited
From the MIT Technology Review:
Then earlier this year Jagdeep Singh, the chief executive of QuantumScape, claimed in an interview with The Mobilist that the heavily funded, stealth Silicon Valley company had cracked the key technical challenges. He added that VW expects to have the batteries in its cars and trucks by 2025, promising to slash the cost and boost the range of its electric vehicles.
After going public in November, QuantumScape is now valued at around $20 billion, despite having no product or revenue as yet (and no expectation that it will until 2024). VW has invested more than $300 million in the company and has created a joint venture with QuantumScape to manufacture the batteries. The company has also raised hundreds of millions from other major investors.
Electrifying transportation is not an all-or-nothing enterprise. Ridding ourselves of fossil fuels in small cars that are used primarily for commuting is something that is now offered by every automaker that expects to be present a decade hence, where retrofitting cargo ships and large aircraft with battery packs will not be feasible for several decades, at best.
Yet everything seems to be coming together nicely, in terms of clean electricity, longer ranges, eco-responsible consumers, and government regulation. Add on top of that the enormous and lightning-fast organization of investment capital around an enterprise with no earnings potential for at least four years, and we have something to sing about.
The technology itself is explained nicely here:
