Editor’s note: “The Forever Battery That Promises to Change the EV Industry” was previously published in February 2023. It has since been updated to include the most relevant information available.
With all my adoration for electric vehicles, I have one huge problem with them. The EV Revolution that everyone is excited about won’t go mainstream until we make better batteries.
The simple reality is that while batteries make things work, today’s batteries are actually keeping EVs from working as well as they could.
Sure, it seems counterintuitive. But it is also absolutely true. And to understand why, we need to take a quick trip back to chemistry class.
The Battery Conundrum
Batteries comprise three things – a cathode, an anode, and an electrolyte. They work by promoting the flow of ions between the cathode and anode through the electrolyte.
Conventional lithium-ion batteries are built on liquid battery chemistry. That is, they comprise a solid cathode and anode, with a liquid electrolyte solution connecting the two.
These batteries have worked wonders for years.
But due to a liquid electrolyte’s physical constraints, they are now reaching their limit in terms of energy cell density. That basically means that if we want our phones, watches, and electric cars to last longer and charge faster, we need a fundamentally different battery.
Insert the solid-state battery.
With solid-state batteries, the name pretty much says it all. Take the liquid electrolyte solution in conventional batteries. Compress it into a solid. Create a small, hyper-compact solid battery that lasts far longer and charges far faster because it has zero wasted space.
Of course, the implications of solid-state battery chemistry are huge.
Solid-state batteries could be the key to making our phones sustain power for days… enabling our smartwatches to fully charge in seconds… and, yes, allowing electric cars to drive for thousands of miles without needing to recharge.
That’s why insiders have dubbed solid-state batteries as “forever batteries.” And it’s why these forever batteries are the critical technology needed to propel the EV Revolution into its next phase of supercharged growth.
Forever Battery: The Possible Just Became Possible
Until recently, making solid-state batteries was the stuff of science fiction because the process was prohibitively complex.
Then, along came a team of genius Stanford professors and scientists. Alongside a few tech execs and with backing from some of the most prestigious venture capital firms in the world, they started a company called QuantumScape (QS) in 2010.
Twelve years later, that company has basically solved the solid-state battery problem.
The biggest issue with solid-state batteries is something called “dendrites.” These are small cracks that form in the solid electrolyte during charging and recharging. And eventually, they get so big that they short-circuit the battery.
Thus, the big breakthrough in solid-state batteries lies in developing a solid electrolyte material that is dendrite-resistant.
In late 2020, QuantumScape did just that on a very tiny scale, with a single-layer battery cell. Sure, a single-layer battery cell is far from enough to power a car. But since then, the company has proven that its proprietary, breakthrough battery technology works in 4-layer and 10-layer cells, and it’s showing promising signs of working in 16-layer cells, too!
Just last quarter, the company started shipping prototypes to auto makers, and early indications are that they’re working.
In other words, QuantumScape appears to have “cracked the code.” It seems it’s made a solid-state that will work in a car.
Within a few years, QuantumScape should be commercializing those next-gen EV batteries – and printing billions of dollars in profits.
Indeed, the impossible is in the process of becoming possible. Forever batteries have arrived.
Of course, QuantumScape stock offers a great way to play the solid-state battery revolution. We think QS has about 10X upside potential from current levels.
But believe it or not, QuantumScape stock is far from the only solid-state battery stock out there with millionaire-maker potential.
The Final Word on the Forever Battery
Solid-state batteries are the future, and they represent one of the most promising technological breakthroughs of the 2020s.
But the impossible is only becoming possible now because of computing advances.
That is, the creation of effective solid-state batteries hinges on a myriad of chemical reactions. In order to make solid-state batteries that work, you need to run a ton of chemical reactions and see which compounds work best together under various stress tests.
You could do this physically. But that takes a ton of time and resources. Instead, you could simulate all these reactions using a computer, and then just test the promising ones in the lab.
The latter is a much more cost-effective and time-effective way to make batteries. Simulate millions of reactions on a computer. Identify the most promising. Perform those reactions in the lab. Push forward with what works best.
Computing power is the engine of solid-state battery development.
And thanks to a little known technology that will revolutionize today’s computers and ultimately render them antiquated, that engine is about to get infinitely better and faster..
This tech is the real key to making solid-state batteries a viable reality.
And one tiny company is making the best version of this top-secret tech. tIn fact, a major top 10 automaker is already using it to make better electric vehicle batteries.
On the date of publication, Luke Lango did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.
