- An American start-up is spearheading Nissan’s efforts to develop solid-state batteries.
- The automaker has reportedly reached the performance targets with its prototype solid-state cells.
- It is now ironing out the processes required for mass production.
Nissan’s glory days are well behind it. The automaker is trying to save itself after years of shrinking profits and sales. Its recovery plan includes layoffs, plant closures and a new wave of products, including electric vehicles and extended-range hybrids.
But even in the middle of this challenging transition, Nissan isn’t giving up on future technologies. The company is still betting big on solid-state batteries, and seems on track to be one of the first automakers to bring them to the market.
The automaker has developed prototype solid-state battery cells that could double the driving range of its EVs when they enter production, Nikkei reported on Sunday. Nissan’s solid-state battery cells have now reached performance targets to enter mass production, with help from U.S. battery start-up LiCAP Technologies.
The Sacramento-based start-up specializes in dry electrodes that eliminate the expensive, time-consuming wet-coating process.
Wet coating involves the mixture of active materials, conductive additives and binders with a solvent to form a liquid slurry. This cathode and anode slurry then gets coated onto current collectors made from aluminum and copper foils, which are then dried in an oven at high temperatures.
Dry coating eliminates solvent and liquid slurry by using the raw material mix to form a solid powder, which is then directly added to the current collector and flattened using roll presses, according to LG Energy Solution.
Nissan Hyper Force concept
Making batteries using this dry electrode process across large factories with minimal defects is the big challenge. That’s the sort of information automakers and battery companies usually closely guard to prevent rivals from edging them out.
Nissan has already been running a pilot production line for solid-state batteries since the start of this year. LiCAP Technologies also runs a 300 megawatt-hour production line in California for its proprietary Activated Dry Electrode technology.
The automaker is reportedly targeting a price of $75 per kilowatt-hour, well below last year’s average pack price of $115 per kWh, according to BloombergNEF. Getting there would require economies of scale better than today’s lithium-ion batteries, which already have established supply chains.
LiCAP is also one of several American battery start-ups attempting to one-up Chinese battery behemoths in the race to develop longer-range, faster-charging batteries.
Volkswagen-backed QuantumScape, also based in California, started shipping near-production solid-state battery samples to customers last week. And Massachusetts-based Factorial is already running trial runs with Mercedes-Benz, planning to do the same with Stellantis next year.
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