Solid-State Batteries – Your Life May Never Be the Same Again
By: Chandu Visweswariah
I can hear the jokes already. “Mom would wait for a half hour at what they called ‘super’ chargers in those days!” “Grandpa would carefully program his EV to charge up to 80%, and it took all night to get there!”
Ever since the advent of the first rechargeable lithium-ion battery in the mid ’80s, the pace of research and development has been relentless. Just this month, a company called Donut Lab, based in Espoo, Finland, has announced the first solid-state batteries in a commercially available motorcycle. For the purposes of this blog, a solid-state battery is one that does not use a liquid electrolyte between the terminals (anode and cathode) of the battery. If this technology pans out, it promises to revolutionize not just transportation, but all applications that use batteries.
The purpose of this article is to explain in layperson non-technical terms the difference between lithium ion or Li-ion batteries (1st generation), lithium iron phosphate or LFP batteries (2nd generation) and solid-state batteries (3rd generation).
The design of batteries and the chemistry thereof have always been about tradeoffs. Some batteries can hold a lot of energy but are very heavy. Others charge quickly but wear out after a few cycles of charging and discharging. Yet others are either expensive, or use rare minerals, or have safety issues.
Now along comes the solid-state battery that is not just better in every dimension but blows away the competition! Donut CEO Marko Lehtimäki explains that the new batteries will make electric vehicles better in every way with no ifs and buts – thus eliminating any remaining arguments for combustion vehicles.
Let us examine the most important attributes of batteries, i.e., energy density, safety, charging speed, longevity, cost and materials requirements.
Energy Density
Energy density is a measure of how much energy (measured in Watt-hours) can be stored per unit weight (measured in kilograms) of the battery. A high energy density allows electric vehicles to be lighter for the same range or to provide more range for the same weight. Lighter batteries lead to lighter cars which need less energy to propel, so high energy densities achieve outsize gains in range. Best-of-breed Li-ion
batteries achieve an energy density of 300 Wh/kg, while LFP achieves 250 Wh/kg. Compared to these, the newly announced solid-state battery achieves 400 Wh/kg, which means lighter cars and/or cars with higher range. Ranges of 1,000 km (625 miles) and more will be commonplace.
Energy density: ✓
Safety
According to EPRI’s battery failure incident database, Li-ion batteries are the most susceptible to thermal instability. LFPs are much better and there are almost no reports of fires when LFPs are installed and operated correctly. But there is still a possibility of fire due to the use of a liquid electrolyte. Solid-state batteries, on the other hand, do not have the possibility of thermal run-away and so safety is enhanced tremendously.
Safety: ✓
Charging speed
To first order, Li-ion and LFP batteries require about the same time to charge, about 45 minutes to add substantial charge to an EV. Compared to that, a car with solid-state batteries can be charged in about the same time it takes to fuel up a combustion vehicle, i.e., about 5 minutes!
In addition, there are other characteristics that favor solid-state batteries.
Li-ion batteries, in particular, should not be charged to 100% every time because that wears out the battery. Both Li-ion and LFP batteries start to slow down when charging approaches 80% or higher. Solid-state batteries do not have such limitations.
It is common knowledge that electric vehicle range is reduced in cold weather. Solid-state batteries, on the other hand, have been tested from -300C (-220F) to +100oC (+212oF) and maintain over 99% of energy capacity over that entire range!
Charging characteristics: ✓
Longevity
Best of breed Li-ion batteries can be charged and discharged 2,000 times, so they will last about 5.5 years with daily charging. LFP batteries can withstand 5,000 cycles, so they will last 13.7 years. Solid-state batteries have unprecedented longevity and are designed for 100,000 cycles (274 years)! This also implies that used electric vehicles with solid-state batteries will retain value for longer.
Longevity: ✓
Where do we go from here?
Does it sound too good to be true? What’s missing from this rosy picture is the rocky road ahead to scale this technology. No showstopper is apparent at this time, but it is never easy to scale new technology into massive production. Certain reliability concerns only reveal themselves with at-scale production.
At the same time, Donut Labs is taking an interesting tack in popularizing this new technology. They are famous for inventing in-wheel motors, which are hollow, lightweight motors used in Verge motorcycles. In 1Q 2026, Verge motorcycles will have both Donut in-wheel motors as well as Donut solid-state batteries, offering a 600 km (375 miles) long-range version with fast-charging. Donut is also designing a skateboard car platform with in-wheel motors and solid-state batteries to be licensed to car manufacturers. They are partnering with Wat on cars, COVA on trucks and Verge on 2-wheelers, and predict that their batteries will quickly find their way into 2-wheelers, EVs, drones, robotics, marine applications and stationary storage.
Conclusions
A bold new world is coming. Unfortunately, the U.S. is going in the wrong direction – nobody will want our gasoline and diesel vehicles, not even our domestic markets.
Just imagine driving a solid-state battery EV:
|
Range |
✓ |
600 miles or more |
|
Charging time |
✓ |
5 minutes |
|
Battery degradation |
✓ |
None, pass on your vehicle to your children! |
|
Battery safety |
✓ |
Not a concern |
|
Up-front cost |
✓ |
Less than a combustion vehicle |
|
Operating cost |
✓ |
¼ of a combustion vehicle |
|
Rare earths |
✓ |
None |
|
Driving in hot/cold weather |
✓ |
99% energy retention |
Wow!
This is an opinion and analysis article. The views expressed by the author are solely his own and not those of any organization he is affiliated with or CURE100.
