Second VW battery factory in Salzgitter?
Will solid-state batteries soon come from Germany?
VW is considering building a solid-state battery factory in Salzgitter, Lower Saxony, together with its U.S. battery development partner Quantumscape. Initially, a pilot plant is to be built where technicians will test the new production technologies. This pilot plant is to produce batteries with a total capacity of one gigawatt hour (GWh) per year.
Nothing works without taxpayers’ money
After that, VW and the battery specialist based in San Jose, California, want to expand production capacity to 20 GWh per year. VW will not make a decision on the construction of the factory until the end of 2021. In this context, the Wolfsburg-based automaker cautions that Salzgitter can only be considered as a location if the taxpayer helps in the form of government subsidies – otherwise Salzgitter would have no chance in international comparison.
Quantumscape convinces VW in laboratory tests
The battery company Quantumscape from San José, California, has now met the requirements to receive a further investment of $100 million (84.74 million euros) from its cooperation partner VW. The Californians have supplied solid-state lithium metal cells to VW and Wolfsburg researchers have successfully tested these cells in their laboratories.
More energy, less charging time
VW has thus invested a total of $300 million (253.93 million euros) in the American company so far. At the cell level, the solid-state batteries are expected to provide approximately twice the energy density of conventional lithium-ion batteries, with one kilowatt hour per liter. In addition, charging times are to be reduced considerably: At present, for example, the VW ID.4 charges energy for 450 kilometers of driving in 25 minutes – in the best case. This charging time is expected to drop to twelve minutes with the introduction of Quantumscape’s solid-state batteries in 2025.
Skeptics consider the start of series production of the solid-state batteries in 2025 to be unrealistic. They also complain that the costs are too high and that the entire cell is not fireproof.
Quantumscape believes problems can be solved
For Jagdeep Singh, the CEO of Quantumscape, the matter is absolutely clear: The current market share of electric cars is only two percent because the batteries are still too bad and too expensive: Too little range, not durable enough, too slow to charge and, in some cases, too flammable.
Singh believes normal improvements in current technologies are not enough. In his opinion, a quantum leap is needed. He believes this can only be achieved with new technology. Quantumscape’s credo: “The Future is solid” makes it clear which: Solid-state batteries.
Solid-state batteries with high potential
Battery researchers have long considered them to be the ideal solution because they make possible what has been the high potential of lithium batteries from the very beginning: the accumulation of pure lithium at the anode (negative pole). Maximilian Fichtner, Professor of Solid State Chemistry at the University of Ulm and Deputy Director of the Helmholtz Institute Ulm for Electrochemical Energy Storage, explains it this way: “The solid electrolyte is actually an aid. It is supposed to make the structure made of graphite on the negative pole side superfluous; you could then replace it with pure lithium. Indeed, the storage capacity of pure lithium is 2860 mAh/g. In current anodes, in which graphite stores the lithium, only 370 mAh/g is possible. That means that at the moment we are losing a factor of 8 on the negative pole side, so to speak, for safety reasons.”
Graphite has been used so far “because pure lithium in a liquid electrolyte forms needle-like structures on the surface when you keep adding and releasing it. These so-called dendrites grow into the cell, piercing boundary layers. This causes short circuits, the cell becomes hot, the electrolyte evaporates, the battery bursts and begins to burn. With the ceramic layer of the solid electrolyte, it is hoped to have a mechanical barrier against dendrite formation, and the negative pole side could be massively improved as described,” Fichtner said. In addition, solid (ceramic) electrolytes do not burn.
Anode without anode material
According to Singh, the QauntumScape cell does not require any lithium at the anode; previous lithium anodes have always required additional lithium instead of graphite, which does not absorb or release any lithium ions but only serves as a buffer. The difference in volume of the anode during charging and discharging must apparently be compensated for by the new electrolyte. Although it is ceramic, it is flexible. In a photo in the presentation, you can see how pliable the layer is.
The big secret of the QuantumScape cell is in the interface between the electrodes.
Jagdeep Singh also points out in his Dec. 8, 2020 presentation that without graphite and additional, “unproductive” lithium at the anode, a massive improvement in volumetric energy density is possible: while current lithium-manganese-cobalt (L-LMC) cells are around 500 Wh/l and nickel-Rich cells are 700 Wh/l, Quantumscape wants to reach 1,000 Wh/l. For e-cars, in which the batteries currently occupy the entire area between the axles with a height of 12 to 15 centimeters, this is a giant leap forward.
Quantumscape sees the gravimetric energy density of the new cell at around 400 Wh/kg, while current Li-NMC (nickel-manganese-cobalt) cells are around 250 Wh/kg and even the emerging nickel-Rich cells or those with silicon are unlikely to exceed 300 Wh/kg.
By the way, the materials at the cathode (currently lithium-manganese-cobalt or nickel) do not play a role in the presentations of Quantumscape – they are not even described in detail, but only as lithium metal. The big progress is the ceramic material of the electrolyte – which of course is not described in detail for a good reason.
Problems of the solid-state battery solved?
The problem with solid electrolytes: Ions tend to migrate sluggishly in them, charging takes a correspondingly long time. In addition, says Professor Fichtner: “If the battery expands or shrinks a little, a liquid can follow suit, and the surfaces always remain wetted. With solid electrolyte, there is a risk that the surface contact breaks off, and then there is no longer any charge transport.” This is also the reason why solid-state batteries have so far worked well, especially at high temperatures (200 degrees); excessive heating, however, made a battery less efficient.
Quantumscape now wants to have solved these problems and published the test results of a single-layer prototype. It is said to
can be charged from 0 to 80 percent in 15 minutes
have a capacity of 80 percent even after 800 cycles
and promises an increase in volumetric energy density of 50 to 100 percent compared to current lithium-ion batteries.
Experts enthusiastic
From the 800 cycles, Quantumscape infers 240,000 miles (386,000 kilometers) of life, so it calculates a range of about 490 kilometers per cycle. If volumetric energy density were actually doubled, VW’s ID.3 (current maximum range 550 kilometers) could carry electrical energy in its battery box for more than 1,000 kilometers of range and the battery would still be considerably lighter.
To substantiate the seriousness and scope of its findings, Quantumscape presented the results to renowned experts, including Jeffrey Brian Straubel, who sits on Quantumscape’s supervisory board. The 45-year-old is co-founder and long-time CTO of Tesla. Elon Musk said of him that if he hadn’t met him for lunch in 2003, Tesla wouldn’t exist. Straubel left the U.S. manufacturer in 2019, where his responsibilities included evaluating partners and suppliers as well as key technologies, including batteries. Straubel started his own business in battery recycling and teaches at Stanford on “Energy Storage Integration.”
He is enthusiastic about the results of the Quantumscape tests. He said he was particularly impressed with how Quantumscape solved the lithium coating, allowing the cells to work well at low temperatures and charge so quickly. Straubel calls 50 percent more volumetric energy density an incredible breakthrough in light of increases on the order of a few percentage points seen in recent years. As a result, he even believes that the Quantumscape battery could open up entirely new possibilities, such as electric aircraft.
Platforms and kits: How VW builds its e-cars
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Hans-Dieter Seufert
Patrick Lang
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Martin Meiners
Ingo Barenschee
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Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT)
Martin Meiners
Schulte
Stefan Baldauf
Seat
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Christian Schulte
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Schulte Design
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Audi AG
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Porsche
Porsche / ams
Schulte
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Christian Schulte
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Stefan Baldauf
AudiAt the end of the presentation, Frank Blome, head of VW’s Center of Excellence for Battery Cells in Salzgitter, also congratulates the team and confirms that Quantumscape cells have already been tested there as well. The results were very promising, he said. VW believes that the new cells are the beginning of high-range car batteries with great fast-charging capability.
Challenge of series development
Despite all the enthusiasm, Quantumscape also sees a long way to go, albeit a viable one now: they need to develop the single-layer prototype into a multilayer cell and on to mass production. And this is where VW comes in: In a partnership with the world’s largest automaker, mass production of solid-state batteries with a capacity of 20 GWh per year should be possible from 2024 to 2025.
VW has invested a total of $300 million in Quantumscape, while the battery company has already raised a total of $1.5 billion in capital to date. By comparison, VW announced in November 2020 that it would invest 73 billion in research and development over the next five years, 35 billion of which would go toward e-mobility. VW last invested the equivalent of around 165 million euros in QuantumScape in June 2020.
Has VW thus secured the super battery?
That sounds like a smart decision. If the company can indeed equip masses of e-cars with solid-state batteries as early as 2025, which could then offer 50 to 100 percent range and charging times reduced by two-thirds. Fire hazards would also no longer be an issue.
Another key advantage for a mass manufacturer is that the solid-state batteries are also expected to be cheaper. Quantumscape claims that production costs would fall because anode material would no longer be needed and would no longer have to be processed during cell production.
VW is part of QantumScape’s future planning
Of course, the further development of a prototype into a mass-produced product holds the biggest stumbling blocks, especially when it comes to batteries. On the other hand, Quantumscape seems to have achieved a breakthrough after ten years of work, and another five years to reach the goal does not seem unrealistic. But if you compare the financial resources spent so far, or even the capital raised by Quantumscape so far, with the investments VW plans to make in e-mobility over the same period, the stumbling blocks can hardly be greater than the financial resources.
Survey
Yes, with the expected range, nothing else is needed.
No, the technology is still too far away, hydrogen is faster.
Conclusion
VW has long been talking about its intention to enter cell production only with the solid-state battery, and thus to make the much-demanded entry into battery production as the key technology of electromobility. Now, at the latest, it should be clear that this was no excuse for VW not yet producing its own cells. The Wolfsburg company has been working with Quantumscape since 2012, is now the largest investor and is planning a joint venture with the battery specialists from the USA for the mass production of solid-state batteries for its e-cars.
Even if the road to get there by 2025 is still rocky, VW could level it with a lot of money: The company’s investment in electromobility until then is 23 times as high as Quantumscape’s total capital.