BMW
- The lithium-ion batteries that power EVs aren’t sustainable or cost-effective long-term.
- Solid-state battery startups are working to scale their alternative chemistry for real cars.
- Here’s how startup Solid Power landed a $1.2 billion SPAC deal to take its solution public.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
A switch from gas to electric power isn’t the only revolution happening in the automotive industry right now. There’s also a push to revolutionize EVs with a more durable, better-performing type of power: solid-state batteries.
One entity working toward that future, Colorado-based startup Solid Power, announced recently that it’ll go public in a $1.2 billion deal.
“This transaction really positions us as the only publicly traded solid-state battery company with a fully funded business plan,” Solid Power CEO Doug Campbell told Insider. “It somewhat insulates us from the whims of the marketplace.”
Solid Power has been developing solid-state vehicle batteries as an alternative to lithium-ion – which powers everything from modern phones to EVs – for a decade, landing partnerships from OEMs like Ford and BMW to put its batteries in real cars within the next 10 years. The goal of switching from lithium-ion to solid-state power in vehicles is to make the batteries denser, more durable, better performing, and less likely to catch fire.
The batteries that Solid Power makes haven’t been tested in real cars yet, but it’s…
