Snips from this article :
https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/electr...te-battery-ev/
You might wonder why solid-state batteries aren’t being used in EVs given they seen to be the panacea to the problems in lithium-ion batteries. But the challenge with solid-state batteries is they are very difficult to manufacture at scale.
Not only are they currently too expensive to be pushed out into commercial use, there’s still a lot of work to be done to make them ready for mass market use, notably in EVs.
At the moment, there’s still a need to find the right atomic and chemical composition for a solid electrolyte that has the right ionic conductivity to deliver enough power for an EV motor.
That’s why we prefixed the advantages of solid-state batteries with ‘could’ as they’ve yet to prove themselves out in the real-world in a consumer gadget let alone an electric car.
Getting the solid electrolyte right is particularly important as it’s the precursor to allowing the use of lithium anodes, which can produce more lithium-ions and thereby more energy. A solid-state electrode is thought to be the solution to the problem of damaging needle-like structures called dendrites forming on the anode as it charges.
As one of the largest lithium-ion battery makers in the world, Panasonic has skin in that battery game. Nevertheless it reckons solid-state batteries are still some ten years away from commercial use.
It does co-own Tesla’s Gigafactory and supplies the batteries for Tesla cars, and it reckons the improvement in EV batteries in the short-term will come from further developing lithium-ion batteries.
Rather than go down the solid-state route, Tesla is working on improving the performance of lithium-ion batteries, with it last year touting new chemistry which could power an EV for more than a million miles.
Given the improvements in lithium-ion batteries and the millage that can be extracted out from them, as well as how they are already being mass produced, it’s unlikely we’ll see them ousted by solid-state batteries anytime soon.
But solid state batteries do look like the future power source for electric cars, it’s just the road to them might be longer than first thought.
^ Not my words, but these facts form my opinions.