The range is extended by 50%! Mercedes-Benz leads investment in Chinese solid-state battery company

Solid-state battery "battle" to add heavyweight car players.

Factorial Energy, a US solid-state battery start-up, announced that it had raised $200m in financing from D-round, led by Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis Group. After completing this round of financing, the company will accelerate the commercial production and deployment of its solid-state batteries.

It is reported that the solid-state battery of the traditional ternary lithium battery, Factorial Energy can extend the range by 50% per charge, and the cost is also competitive with the traditional ternary lithium battery.

About Factorial Energy

Founded three years ago and headquartered in (Woburn), Massachusetts, Factorial Energy is a start-up dedicated to the development and commercialization of solid-state battery technology.

In fact, last December, Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis were reported to have invested in Factorial Energy. However, Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis each signed separate joint cooperation agreements. And the plans are different. Mercedes-Benz aims to introduce the technology into mass production within the next five years, while Stellantis hopes to launch solid-state technology by 2026.

In addition, prior to Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis, Factorial announced separate investment and cooperation agreements with Hyundai and Kia to jointly develop and test Factorial's solid-state battery technology and integrate it into Hyundai electric vehicles.

So far, Factorial has been supported by heavyweights in the automotive industry, such as Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis.

It is understood that Factorial has FEST technology (Factorial electrolyte system technology), which uses proprietary solid electrolyte materials to achieve safe and reliable battery performance through high pressure and high energy density electrodes, and has been expanded in 40Ah batteries operating at room temperature. According to reports, this technology is safer than traditional lithium-ion technology, can increase range by 20% to 50%, and has embedded compatibility features, so that it can be easily integrated into the existing lithium-ion battery manufacturing infrastructure.

According to Siyu Huang, chief executive of FE, they will start building a pilot production line in New England this season. "when the plant is completed, FE will begin to produce solid-state batteries on a large scale and supply them to customers to start testing."

Solid-state battery has always been seen as a way to break through the performance limits of today's electric vehicles. With the help of capital, investment in the field of solid-state battery continues to be hot, both internationally and domestically.

In 2022, Xilai will carry a semi-solid battery pack with a capacity of 150C on the new model ET7, so 2022 will be designated as the "first year of solid-state battery".

At present, the main players in the field of solid-state batteries include three categories: the first is independent research and development by car companies, mainly on behalf of Japanese companies such as Toyota, Honda and Nissan; the second is power battery enterprises. at present, leading power battery enterprises in China, Japan, South Korea and other countries are increasing the research and development of power batteries; the third category is enterprises specializing in solid-state batteries, many of which have been invested by well-known multinational companies.

International car companies have their own advantages.

In addition to the above-mentioned Factorial, which has received investment from Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis, in the international market, a number of international car companies have mentioned the layout of the battery industry when announcing their electric vehicle development plans since 2021, and have formulated solid-state battery business plans.

Toyota was one of the first companies to develop solid-state batteries, with the largest number of related technology patents (said to be more than 1000). Toyota plans to achieve small-scale mass production of all-solid-state batteries by 2025, first on hybrid models, and sustained and stable mass production of all-solid-state batteries by 2030.

Nissan plans to launch an electric model with original all-solid-state batteries by 2028 and plans to build a pilot plant in Yokohama, Japan, in 2024.

As early as 2018, Volkswagen Group invested US $100 million in Quantum Scape, an American solid-state battery company, and cooperated to invest an additional $200 million in 2020. At present, the company has completed nearly 1100 cycle tests, maintaining a capacity of more than 80 per cent in 800 charge-discharge cycles, but the product will not be available until five years later.

BMW Group and Ford Motor announced a joint investment of $139 million in Solid Power, a solid-state battery start-up, in May 2021. BMW and Ford are scheduled to purchase solid-state batteries for test cars from Solid Power in 2022.

In addition to investing in Factorial, Hyundai co-invested in Solid Power, with Samsung SDI in 2018 and SES, which has close ties with General Motors, in 2021.

Domestic car companies have achieved some success.

In fact, the layout of solid-state batteries by domestic enterprises does not lag behind that of international car companies. In terms of domestic car companies, the current very clear layout of solid-state batteries, including BYD, Lai Automobile, Dongfeng Motor, SAIC Group, Great Wall Automobile, BAIC New Energy and other enterprises, some of which have achieved some success.

The formulation and preparation process of BYD's all-solid-state lithium metal laminated battery have been developed and are being continuously optimized. At the same time, in terms of the number of domestic solid-state battery patents, BYD ranks first with 76 patents.

Xilai released its first 150kWh solid-state battery in January 2021, announcing that it can achieve ultra-high energy density of 360Wh/kg, which will be officially installed on the ET7 model this year.

Dongfeng Technology Center and Ganfeng Lithium Power signed a demonstration and promotion agreement on solid-state battery E70 models in July 2021. On January 22 this year, the first batch of 50 Dongfeng E70 electric vehicles equipped with Ganfeng solid-state batteries were officially delivered. However, the demonstration operation is limited and has not yet been mass produced on a large scale.

SAIC has carried out strategic cooperation with solid-state battery start-ups such as Quantum Scape, Solid Energy and Qingtao.

Honeycomb Energy, owned by Great Wall Motor, has also put forward a very specific solid-state battery technology development plan.

BAIC New Energy launched a pure electric prototype with a solid-state battery system in July 2020, which is the first public drivable solid-state battery prototype in China.

Solid state battery "home"

According to incomplete statistics, at present, there are more than 50 enterprises in the world in the layout of solid-state battery research and development. Representative battery companies include BYD, Ningde era, Weilan New Energy, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, Quantum Scape, Solid Power and so on.

On behalf of the enterprise solid-state battery related progress is as follows:

BYD: domestic solid-state battery patent first, it is rumored that solid-state battery can be mass-produced and loaded at any time.

Ningde era: research and development of sulphide solid-state batteries in 2016, which is expected to be commercialized after 2030.

Weilan New Energy: achieve 1GWh production capacity in 2021 and 20GWh in 2026. It is rumored that it will provide semi-solid battery solutions for Lailai, with investments from strategic institutions such as Xiaomi Group and Huawei.

Guoxuan Hi-Tech: semi-solid battery for domestic high-end pure electric battery to achieve ultra-1000km mileage, the specific car companies have not yet been announced.

Ganfeng Lithium Industry: Ganfeng Lithium Power has delivered 50 solid-state battery electric vehicles to Dongfeng Automobile.

Zhongchuang Sina Airlines: solid-state batteries have been produced and will increase investment in research and development in the field of solid-state batteries in the future.

Honeycomb Energy: the solid-state battery with an energy density of 350-500Wh/Kg is planned to be used in production vehicles in 2025. At present, a breakthrough has been made in the research and development of semi-solid battery technology, with the launch of "jelly battery".

Huineng Technology: at present, Huineng solid-state lithium ceramic battery has been mass-produced and can be used in mobile phone accessories, wearable devices and other fields. at the same time, solid-state batteries for new energy vehicles have also been successfully developed, with semi-solid-state batteries reaching 1GWh capacity in 2021 and full-solid-state batteries in 2024.

It is worth mentioning that Huineng Technology recently received an investment of nearly 100 million euros from Mercedes-Benz, and the two sides will jointly develop the next generation of solid-state battery cells for electric vehicles. The first Mercedes-Benz test vehicles equipped with this co-developed solid-state battery will be launched in the next few years and will gradually be carried in a series of passenger cars over the next five years.

At the same time, Mercedes-Benz will have a seat on Huineng's board of directors. in addition to the development of solid-state battery technology, Mercedes-Benz will also help Huineng establish a manufacturing plant in Europe, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2022 at the earliest.

Qingtao Energy: in 2020, the new energy prototype equipped with Qingtao energy solid-state battery was successfully put off the line in BAIC, and the first phase of Qingtao 1GWh solid-state power battery project has been put into production.

LG Energy: plans to commercialize lithium-sulfur batteries by the end of 2025 and all-solid-state batteries between 2025 and 2027;

Quantum Scape: received investment from Volkswagen Group, SAIC Group, Bill Gates, etc., listed through SPAC in November 2020, and plans to establish a 1GWh trial production line in 2024.

Solid Power: received funding from BMW, Ford, Hyundai and SKI to develop all-solid-state batteries for vehicles, which are expected to be loaded in 2022.

Factorial Energy: has been supported by heavyweights such as Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz and Stellantis and is known as the start-up with the best hope for commercial mass production of solid-state batteries.

Summary

Generally speaking, solid-state battery is already walking on the tuyere, and it is a potential but challenging new track for car companies, power battery companies and R & D enterprises.

It is predicted that by 2030, the global demand for solid-state batteries is expected to reach 500GWh. it is conservatively estimated that the market will form a market size of more than 300 billion yuan.

Fast-growing solid-state batteries, to the extent that capital is crazy about them, may not have to wait another 5-10 years. In 2022, Chinese new energy car company Lai Automobile will officially carry a semi-solid battery package to its pure electric car ET7. What kind of effect it will cause in the battery industry, and even in the automobile industry, is quite something to look forward to!