Solid-state batteries are among the best alternatives for increasing the range of electric cars. Hyundai and other carmakers want to win this race, which also includes Toyota and Nissan. But car manufacturers aren't the only ones making such efforts. A big company, which you may be more familiar with due to its presence in other markets, aims to become a leader in this technology.
We’re talking about Samsung, specifically the company's Samsung SDI division, which wants to launch a solid-state battery by 2027. At the recent InterBattery 2024 conference, held in Seoul, the South Korean capital, the company announced that it intends to become one of the first to produce this technology on a large scale.
Samsung Super Gap. Samsung has named its new product Samsung Super Gap, which will be a solid-state battery that’s more thermally stable and has greater capacity than traditional solutions. It would have a capacity close to 900 Wh/L, an attempt to overcome the energy density of current conventional batteries.
With these features, solid-state batteries could solve the biggest problem with electric cars: range. They aim to achieve more capacity at the same volume, thus enabling the creation of lighter batteries with greater autonomy. Besides meeting these characteristics, Samsung intends to go further with its product.
Ultra-fast charging. Samsung wants to produce batteries with a lot of capacity and fast charging. Specifically, Samsung wants its solid-state batteries to charge vehicles from 8% to 80% in 9 minutes. In other words, the company wants your car to be ready for a long trip in less than 10 minutes.
But, as always, not everything that glitters is gold. Batteries may be ready to support these exorbitant charging rates, but is the global charging network ready for their arrival? Providers would have to make significant changes to establish ultra-fast charging as a standard rather than an anecdote.
Ready for 2027. Samsung will start making its solid-state batteries in 2027, three years earlier than the South Korean giant had planned. However, there’s still no information about the manufacturers that will partner with Samsung SDI and include the Samsung Super Gap battery in their vehicles.
Big news for electric cars. Manufacturers like Samsung aren't only betting on solid-state batteries; lithium is still a great option. In fact, Samsung SDI also announced that it had packaged lithium batteries more efficiently.
According to the company, it reduced the number of lithium battery components by 35% and reduced their weight by 20%. Samsung aims to release its new lithium battery, which it says will have a lower production cost, this year.
Image | Kumpan Electric
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