QuantumScape Announces Battery Breakthrough for Electric Vehicles

Fresh off the heels of DeepMind’s breakthrough in a 50-year-old biotech problem, QuantumScape—the secretive $4.3 billion startup—might have solved a 40-year-old battery one.

Rewind: Electric vehicles have come a long way, but they’re still fighting persistent problems with range, charge time, long-term cell capacity, and battery safety. To level with their gas-powered rivals, they need one key piece of equipment: a solid-state battery. There’s never been a major contender.

...Until now?

The Volkswagen-backed startup first announced its progress toward a solid-state battery months ago, but it’s no longer all talk: Yesterday, it released test results for the first time. And experts say they look promising.

• The battery enables charging to 80% capacity in 15 minutes, according to QuantumScape’s data—while existing options on the market take about an hour to charge.

Big picture: If the science holds up, this has big implications for the future of EVs—as QuantumScape CEO Jagdeep Singh told us in September, the “biggest car company is basically saying they can't wait to put these in their cars by 2025.”