Solid Power, a developer of solid-state batteries for electric vehicles, aims to begin shipping pre-production battery cells by year-end for validation testing by partners BMW and Ford Motor, the company said on Monday.
In an interview, Doug Campbell, Solid Power’s chief executive and co-founder, said the Colorado company has set up a pilot production line to provide validation samples to automakers while looking for a manufacturing partner to begin producing its cells as early as 2026.
One prospective partner, he said, is Korea’s SK Innovation , which is building joint-venture battery plants with Ford in Tennessee and Kentucky.
“Long term, we do not endeavor to be a cell producer,” he said.
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Campbell said Solid Power has sufficient pilot production capacity to provide prototype battery cells to other vehicle manufacturers, but declined to provide specific detail.
The company, which went public through a reverse merger in 2021, drew early investments from Hyundai and Samsung, in addition to Ford and BMW.
Campbell acknowledges the intense competition in solid-state battery development among the “big boys - groups like Toyota, Panasonic, Samsung, LG Energy Solution, Hyundai and CATL.”
“We’re in a space among a lot of very prominent and credible players,” he said.
Like most of those companies, Solid Power’s battery cell features a sulfide-based solid-state electrolyte, the medium through which lithium ions flow between positive and negative electrodes during charging and discharging.
Battery cells with solid-state electrolytes have a significantly lower risk of catching fire from internal shorts than those with liquid electrolytes.
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Campbell said Solid Power’s cells, which currently use silicon-rich anodes and nickel-cobalt-manganese cathodes, have the potential to hold more energy - thus providing electric vehicles with longer range - and cost less than conventional lithium-ion batteries.
Solid Power also has designed its solid-state cells to be compatible with current lithium-ion manufacturing processes.
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