Story at a glance
- Ford and BMW have led a $130 million investment rally in Solid Power, a battery company.
- Solid Power’s key product is non-liquid batteries.
- The batteries are said to be safer, heat-resistant and more energy-efficient as opposed to traditional lithium battery cells.
A new electric car battery startup has garnered some major financial backers from the motor vehicle industry.
Both U.S.-based Ford Motors and German BMW have increased investments into battery company Solid Power, contributing to a $130 million funding round, per CNBC.
The batteries are meant to be used in electric vehicles (EVs), an alternative to gas-powered cars that are responsible for a plurality of carbon emissions in the atmosphere.
Solid Power’s main product is their solid-state batteries (ASSB), which are more temperature-resilient by not relying on the typical liquid electrolyte based in lithium-ion batteries. Manufacturers say this makes the battery both safer and more energy-efficient.
With their investment, both Ford and BMW will receive batteries designed for their automobile products. The companies will begin testing the batteries in their cars in 2022.
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Executives like Hau Thai-Tang, Ford’s chief product platform and operations officer, told reporters it is likely that the auto industry will begin pivoting away from lithium-ion batteries within the next decade.
“We think it’s realistic that by the end of this decade, there’s a good chance that this is something we can go into production with,” he reportedly said.
This follows Ford’s broader commitments to expanding its electric vehicle range by mid-2026, when it aims for all of its passenger vehicles sold in Europe to be carbon neutral. This includes all-electric or plug-in hybrid models. By 2030, the company aims to be all electric within its European passenger car market.
In the U.S., Ford also invested in the development of a new facility devoted to manufacturing car batteries in Michigan.
The facility, called Ford Ion Park, is designed “to accelerate research and development of battery and battery cell technology,” with an emphasis on battery manufacturing.
“Investing in more battery R&D ultimately will help us speed the process to deliver more, even better, lower cost EVs for customers over time,” Thai-Tang said.
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