John__C

Just thought I would share an article that I found to be interesting related to a potential breakthrough in battery technology (in which VWG is a major investor).

Article Link

AlexOz

Very interesting article, thanks.

When I worked in venture capital in the 2000s, I and my partners looked at multiple battery technology companies, and invested in one. We lost all of our money, which happens to at least 50% of all VC investments, and other VC firms had similar experiences. I met with many decent, honest, earnest, hard-working, passionate, smart entrepreneurs, some of them with promising technologies. The stumbling block with many battery technologies is manufacturing at scale. The technology works great in the lab when made by PhDs but is hard to automate in a factory. Capital requirements are very high, too. The story of A123 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A123_Systems is quite instructive.

I certainly hope that QuantumScape works out. Its specifications get us ever closer to the "no-brainer" tipping point between ICE and EV.

Mr_Marty

If the numbers are true and they can mass produce it's the end of ICE. I've long said that the threshold is 4x the current energy density. Of course price is also a factor. If they can manufacture packs at a cost equal or less than current packs and the size of those packs is 1/4 the current size then every car will be electric within two decades as manufacturing efficiencies will reduce cost even further and the technology will improve as well.

John__C

Whether it is these guys or someone else, I am convinced we will see a continued evolution in battery design and I could easily envision all new cars being electric within two decades. What I found particularly appealing within this article is the potential for significantly higher charging speeds. I don’t believe even current ranges would be a significant issue if you could recharge a battery in roughly the same time as it takes to refill a gas tank. In my mind, an EV is already the superior choice for in-town driving. The hurdle that remains is making it more viable for longer road trips.

Pokerhobo

I bought shares of QS and hope they succeed, but the challenge hasn't been at building a prototype solid state battery in a lab, its manufacturing them at scale. QS supposedly solved this problem, but will believe it when they have batteries produced en masse. Toyota recently announced they have their own solid state battery coming in a few years, but it seems that solid state batteries are like cold fusion... always a few years away.

Cpoarchy

Another interesting article
https://www.greencarreports.com/news...ly-due-in-2021

Mr_Marty

Very true. Even a range of 200 miles is more than adequate since most of the time you're recharging at home. If they could cut the size and weight of a battery pack to less than half and be able to recharge in under 10 minutes that would be a seismic shift.

XLR82XS

Read about the Quantum break through last week. If everything goes right that stock will a good long-term investment. With all the EV coming to market in the next 5 years, including Semi, we'll need advanced batteries. I think they'll evolve like the ICE did. (ex. carbs and pushrods to computer-controlled EFI, cam timing, etc...)