“We spent about the first five years in a search for a material that could work,” Mr. The technology makes it possible to substitute a solid material for the liquid electrolyte that carries energy between the positive and negative poles of a battery, allowing it to pack more energy per pound. Straubel, a co-founder of Tesla, was another early supporter and is a member of QuantumScape’s board.Īfter years of experimentation, QuantumScape developed a ceramic material - its exact composition is a secret - that separates the positive and negative ends of the batteries, allowing ions to flow back and forth while avoiding short circuits. John Doerr, famous for being among the first investors in Google and Amazon, provided seed money. Singh teamed up with Fritz Prinz, a professor at Stanford University, and Tim Holme, a researcher at Stanford. The key, he realized, was a battery capable of storing more energy, and “the only way to do that is to look for a new chemistry, a chemistry breakthrough.” “It was enough to provide a glimpse of what could be,” he said. Singh became convinced that electric cars were the future. Despite the Roadster’s notorious unreliability, Mr. Singh, who previously started a company that made telecommunications equipment, founded QuantumScape in 2010 after buying a Roadster, Tesla’s first production vehicle. “Most of these new material concepts bring huge performance metrics but compromise on something else,” Mr. Shorter charging times and longer range may come at the expense of battery life span, said David Deak, a former Tesla executive who is now a consultant on battery materials. It’s not certain that all the new technologies will live up to their inventors’ promises. The automakers will also want to know if the batteries can be recharged hundreds of times without losing their ability to store electricity, whether they can survive a crash without bursting into flames and whether they can be manufactured cheaply. Automakers will use the factory’s output to test whether the batteries can withstand rough roads, cold snaps, heat waves and carwashes. That has not stopped the company from forging ahead with a factory in San Jose that by 2024, if all goes well, will begin producing cells for sale. QuantumScape was worth $54 billion on the stock market shortly after it went public in 2020. General Motors: The company hopes to become a leading force in the electric vehicle industry.Next-Generation Batteries: Makers of batteries for electric vehicles that could charge in a few minutes are bringing the technology a big step closer to auto showrooms.
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Charging Stations: The Biden administration unveiled proposed regulations that would require stations built with federal dollars to be located no more than 50 miles apart.E.V.s accounted for 5.6 percent of new car sales in June, almost double the share from a year ago. Sales Climb in U.S.: Despite shortages, Americans are buying electric vehicles at a record pace.Read More on Electric Vehicles As the overall auto market stagnates, the popularity of battery-powered cars is soaring worldwide.