“There are hot battery startups that can take Tesla down. If QuantumScape. QS succeeds, Tesla will face a huge challenge.”
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Quantumscape, which develops all-solid batteries on the 1st.
Quantumscape, headquartered in San Jose, Calif., was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in November and the stock price soared. The public offering price was $23.5, but soared to $132.73 on the 22nd of last month. On the 31st, the closing price dropped significantly to 84.45 dollars, but it was once the same as Tesla in terms of the rate of increase. The market cap still exceeds Ford’s market cap at $30.6 billion.
The company is a company funded by Volkswagen and Bill Gates and is developing all-solid-state batteries. The all-solid battery is a next-generation battery that has been replaced with a solid electrolyte instead of the current mainstream lithium-ion battery. Liquid electrolytes are bulky and prone to overheating. All solids are solids with a high ignition point, so the risk of explosion is low. In addition, the charging time is short, the performance is better, and the volume can be reduced, so it is called the’dream battery’.
In particular, the’lithium metal’ battery under development by Quantumscape can reduce the volume further and provide more power at a lower cost by combining a lithium component with a positive electrode. The company announced on the 8th of last month that the all-solid-state battery under development has reached a level that can charge 80% in 15 minutes, and that it can maintain more than 80% of its capacity even after 800 charges. Volkswagen plans to introduce electric vehicles with all-solid-state batteries from Kwon Termscape in 2025.
The battery industry believes that all solids will drive the future of batteries, but Tesla’s Elon Musk is an exception. He said at a Battery Day event in September that “removing the anode (to increase capacity) is not as great as it is known.”
WSJ pointed out that “Tesla’s skepticism about all-solid-state batteries may have something to do with its own battery technology. This could make it difficult for Tesla to adapt once all-solid-state batteries are developed.” Tesla puts a cylindrical battery on the floor in an electric vehicle. It is different from other electric car companies stacking square batteries. When it is all solid, it becomes much easier to stack. WSJ analyzed that Tesla’s competitive advantage so far could turn into an inferior.
However, a lot of time is still required to develop an all-solid battery. Toyota is known to be the most advanced, but mass production is aimed at 2025. Quantumscape’s announcement last month is also about single-layer battery cells. Another American battery startup, Solid Power, is making multi-layered all-solid-state batteries in ARMY. Solid Power, invested by Samsung and Hyundai Motors, plans to commercialize all-solid-state batteries by 2026. “Manufacturing becomes exponentially difficult,” said Mark Newman, an analyst at the brokerage Bernstein.
WSJ said, “The current valuation of Quantumscape or Tesla assumes a massive (existing) market disruption in the distant future,” said WSJ. “It can be done.”
Reporter Kim Hyun-seok [email protected]
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