Advanced E.V. Batteries Move From Labs to Mass Production

Mr. Singh, who previously started a company that made telecommunications equipment, founded QuantumScape in 2010 after buying a Roadster, Tesla’s first production vehicle. Despite the Roadster’s notorious unreliability, Mr. Singh became convinced that electric cars were the future.

“It was enough to provide a glimpse of what could be,” he said. The key, he realized, was a battery capable of storing more energy, and “the only way to do that is to look for a new chemistry, a chemistry breakthrough.”

Mr. Singh teamed up with Fritz Prinz, a professor at Stanford University, and Tim Holme, a researcher at Stanford. John Doerr, famous for being among the first investors in Google and Amazon, provided seed money. J.B. Straubel, a co-founder of Tesla, was another early supporter and is a member of QuantumScape’s board.

After years of experimentation, QuantumScape developed a ceramic material — its exact composition is a secret — that separates the positive and negative ends of the batteries, allowing electrons to flow back and forth while avoiding short circuits. The technology makes it possible to substitute a solid material for the liquid electrolyte that carries energy between the positive and negative poles of a battery, allowing it to pack more energy per pound.

“We spent about the first five years in a search for a material that could work,” Mr. Singh said. “And after we thought we found one, we spent another five years or so working on how to manufacture it in the right way.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/12/business/electric-vehicle-batteries.html