SOLID-STATE BATTERIES SET TO GO MAINSTREAM

New, lighter battery tech boosts range and is close to making production

- CHARLIE MARTIN

Solid-state batteries have long been toute have long been touted as the technological breakthrough that EV makers are striving to bring to market. Finally, it now looks like the technology will arrive in the next 12 months.

These next-generation batteries are regarded as a holy grail for EVs because they offer greater capacity and more range than similar-sized lithium ion packs used today.

Those batteries are composed of an anode and a cathode at opposite ends of the cell, with a physical 'separator' preventing them from touching, and a gellike liquid in the middle.

In a solid-state battery, the make-up is simplified.