Solid-state batteries have been regarded as the next best choice after ternary lithium batteries. Compared with traditional lithium batteries, all materials of solid-state lithium batteries exist in solid form, which has the advantages of high safety performance, long cycle life, high energy density, wide temperature tolerance range, flexibility and so on. Although their excellent performance makes solid-state batteries desirable, the technical difficulties of the present stage mean that "mass production" is still a difficult problem for most energy companies.

But on Nov. 20, a startup announced that it had built its first solid-state battery production line and was about to launch its first solid-state lithium-ion battery products. The company, known as Qingtao (Kunshan) Energy Development Co., Ltd., is a high-tech enterprise focused on the "production-learning-research" transformation of cutting-edge new energy materials technology, invested by a team of academicians from Tsinghua University, according to publicly available online materials.

Mr Nam said they were now using the batteries for "special equipment and high-end digital products", and were in talks with "some big car manufacturers" to apply solid-state batteries to electric vehicles. The company's solid-state batteries have achieved energy densities "in excess of 400Wh/kg", compared with 250Wh/kg-300 Wh/kg for the latest three-way lithium-ion batteries, according to a product manager at Qingtao.

Although the price of solid-state batteries has not been announced, Qingtao said that it has a clear roadmap for solid-state battery equipment and is expected to be able to meet the needs of car companies in power batteries in 2020 and provide battery solutions for them.

Source: World Wide Web