World's Largest Battery Manufacturer Labels Solid-State Technology 'Unsafe'

• CATL CEO, Dr. Robin Zeng, claims solid-state batteries are impractical and unsafe in their current form.
• Zeng believes sodium-ion batteries are a better alternative.
• Zeng’s cautionary words on solid-state battery technology raise questions about its practicality and commercial viability.

Solid-state battery technology has widely been touted as the next major step for electric vehicles (EVs), reducing weight, increasing energy density, decreasing production costs, improving charging speeds, increasing range, and above all else, making EVs less prone to fires by virtue of being more stable. But the founder and CEO of the world’s largest battery supplier, CATL, has now come out and claimed that solid-state batteries are impractical and unsafe.

CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Company Limited) is a Chinese-based company supplying EV batteries to BMW, Tesla, Hyundai, Porsche, and, as of last year, Ford, to name a few. They’re a pretty big deal, currently supplying approximately 36% of all EV batteries globally, more than double the market share of closest rival BYD (15.8%). But Dr. Robin Zeng, CATL’s CEO and a man known as the ‘Battery King,’ has cautioned the world that such technology isn’t as viable as we’ve been led to believe.

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BMW

BMW is heavily invested in solid-state battery technology through its partnership with Solid Power, promising prototypes arriving imminently. However, commercial viability is only expected in 2030.

The Problems With Solid-State Batteries, According To The ‘Battery King’

Speaking to the Financial Times (subscription required), Zeng said that CATL has “been investing in [solid-state batteries] for 10 years,” and despite this, he still doesn’t see it as commercially viable. “I watch the development people working on solid-state almost every month, so I know all the progress, and somehow we still have these showstoppers,” he explains. The big issue is that he says an entirely new type of chemistry is required, one that uses pure lithium metal for the anode electrode. But this introduces more problems, as such a chemistry must:

1. Be kept under extreme pressure, which poses a threat when batteries expand during recharging; and
2. The lithium in these batteries would react with oxygen if the battery housing was pierced in an accident, potentially releasing toxic Lithium Hydroxide, which could harm the vehicle occupants, emergency services, and other road users.

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Because of the pressurization issues, Zeng says, “it cannot last many [charging] cycles,” asking, “So how can you make it commercially viable?” This doesn’t mean Zeng is anti solid-state technology; quite the opposite. “We fully support solid-state,” he says but cautions that it’s not the commercially viable silver bullet it’s been made out as. Zeng isn’t the only person thinking this, as battery specialist StoreDot said in 2022 that solid-state tech was still a decade away.

What Alternative Does He Suggest?

Instead of looking at solid-state tech as the next major step forward, Zen believes sodium-ion batteries – known as ‘semi-solid’ batteries – are where our focus should be. This is technology CATL has been working on since 2021, so there’s naturally a vested interest for Zeng in this avenue if his company is the one pioneering the tech. He says this chemistry can double the range of lithium-ion batteries, providing parity with the claims of solid-state, but without the high initial costs and volatility issues highlighted above.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of sodium-ion technology, as Stellantis previously mentioned the possibility of such chemistry in its attempts to reduce the weight of batteries deemed “just too heavy” by Bic Curic, head of engineering and technology for the automotive conglomerate. The goal for Stellantis is to reduce battery weights by half compared to current tech, thereby massively reducing the weights of EVs like the forthcoming Jeep Recon and Wagoneer S.

Automotive Industry At Large Still In Favor Of Solid-State

But the rest of the industry seems hell-bent on making solid-state technology viable. Toyota, while considered by many to be late to the EV party with the bZ4X, has been pioneering solid-state development for more than a decade, holding more than 1,300 solid-state patents as of 2022. Toyota last year announced that solid-state technology would be ready for a 2027 market introduction, claiming over 600 miles of range and 10-minute charging times. But even Toyota cautioned that the rollout would be slow, and it wouldn’t be the industry savior everyone thinks – not yet, anyway. Mass production would only begin in 2030, and only enough for “several tens of thousands of vehicles,” not the millions the company sells every year.

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Other automakers heavily committed to solid-state tech include BMW (expected to produce its first solid-state prototypes this year), Nissan, Honda, Volkswagen, and Ford, among others.

We know the impossible always seems impossible until it’s achieved, but Dr. Zeng isn’t what we’d term unfamiliar with the intricacies of battery chemistry, and his opinion carries a certain amount of weight.