The recent discovery of battery manufacturing by QuantumScape has also put the company in the limelight again after many years of mixed feelings about its technology. It stated that its new Cobra ceramic separator process has now been incorporated into production, which is a big step towards actualizing the production of solid-state batteries on a large scale. The attractiveness of this process is obvious. It digitizes production significantly faster than ever before, and with only minimal space and machinery. This implies the company will be able to start imagining production at the scale and efficiency required to achieve broad commercialization.
The potential of solid-state batteries has always been performance and efficiency. These are light, can hold more energy and can be charged much faster compared to their counterparts, the lithium-ion batteries that we find today. Automakers have longed to see improvement in this area, and this news indicates that the wait might soon be reduced.
It is a positive sign to Volkswagen, which invested heavily in QuantumScape, that this is on the verge of benefiting it with more efficient and cheaper batteries used in its EVs. Other automakers are also positioned to seize sampling agreements, indicating that the need and the interest are not with one partner.
The stock response with the stock rising over 30% is a confirmation of how this milestone is crucial to investors who have been wondering whether this technology could ever be scaled. It is a development that can turn around a company that has lost most of its stock value since the 2020 boom. Nevertheless, much will be expected of QuantumScape now to demonstrate that this claim is not only possible in labs and pilot lines but also in mass production. Assuming that the process can be scaled down successfully, the company may become an actual leader in producing EV batteries and become more than a mere speculative story. The coming two years will be critical for its confidence and credibility.
