On Sept. 7, Solid Power, a developer of all-solid-state batteries for electric vehicles, announced that it would build a second plant in Colorado. The new plant will expand the capacity of key materials for all-solid-state batteries, including up to 30 metric tons of sulphide-based solid electrolyte materials per year, a 25-fold increase over current capacity.
The new factory covers an area of about 75000 square feet and will quadruple the total production area of Solid Power. The electrolyte production at the new plant is intended to directly supply the company's upcoming all-solid-state electric vehicle battery production line, which is expected to produce batteries for vehicle certification testing and future battery pack design.
Solid Power expects to produce and deliver the first 100 Ah batteries in 2022 and conduct quality testing on cars. Once the batteries are fully qualified, Solid Power intends to work with automakers and top battery manufacturers to produce 100Ah all-solid-state batteries, which are widely used in cars.
Doug Campbell, CEO and co-founder of Solid Power, said, "in order to continue to promote Solid Power's production of specification-grade batteries, we must significantly increase the production of its sulphide-based solid electrolyte materials, and this new plant represents an important step towards this goal."
In the long run, Solid Power plans to sell its sulphide solid electrolyte materials to support all-solid-state battery production by its partners, including Ford and BMW. Solid Power also plans to sell the material to other solid-state battery manufacturers that may not use the company's unique all-solid-state battery design. Solid Power is working to achieve an annual production capacity of 40, 000 metric tons of electrolyte materials by 2028, which could support the production of 800000 electric vehicles a year.
The new plant is also expected to further expand Solid Power's R & D and battery testing capabilities. In the third all-solid-state battery design of Solid Power, it is expected that a new generation of electrolytes and conversion reaction cathodes and other products and materials will be developed. The new plant is expected to be fully operational in the second quarter of 2022.
, Solid Power announced on June 15th that it had reached a final agreement with (SPAC) Decarbonization Plus Acquisition Corporation III, a special purpose acquisition company, which would make Solid Power a public company. Regular closing conditions need to be met to complete the deal, and the company is expected to go public in the fourth quarter of 2021.
