New changes brought by Quantum Scape after its listing

A few days ago, QuantumScape, a US solid-state battery developer, was listed on the New York Stock Exchange with the stock code "QS". Interestingly, this is the first company dedicated to the development of next-generation battery technology to go public. The listing of QS will also drive the pace of solid-state battery companies to enter the listed market first.

01. Global development of solid-state battery companies

Traditional lithium-ion batteries are mainly composed of positive/negative electrodes, electrolytes and separators, shells and accessories. The positive and negative electrode materials fundamentally determine the capacity of the battery, while the electrolyte (and separator) serve as a medium for transmitting lithium ions. The difference between solid-state lithium batteries and traditional lithium-ion batteries is that solid electrolytes replace the electrolytes and separators of traditional lithium-ion batteries. There are three types of electrolytes for solid-state lithium batteries that are currently in use or close to commercial use: polymers, sulfides and oxides.

1) The main problem with polymers is that the room temperature ionic conductivity is very low, and the battery can only work properly at higher temperatures. The electrochemical window is narrow, which makes the performance upper limit of polymers low.

2) The main disadvantages of the oxide material system are low overall conductivity and poor electrode contact, which can be further optimized through structure and preparation process.

3) Sulfides also have poor contact with positive and negative electrodes. This problem is improved by designing a double-layer electrolyte: different modification processes are used on the interfaces of the positive and negative electrodes to achieve good contact with the electrodes at the same time. Sulfides easily react with water and oxygen in the air to produce toxic gases, which increases the difficulty of the preparation process and adds huge costs to large-scale preparation. On the whole, metal oxide solid-state batteries are still the most likely choice for mainstream solid-state electrolytes in China. From a global perspective, European solid-state batteries are mainly polymer systems, the United States is a solid-liquid mixture, and in Asia, China, Japan and South Korea are mainly oxides and sulfides. In terms of investment in solid-state batteries, many companies have chosen to stop in stages, as shown below. Investing in solid-state batteries is a long process. In this round of gradual expansion of listing, many companies have already GG, as shown in the figure below. In the PPT made by Zhang Huineng, a skull was made for each dead company.

Figure 1. Solid-state batteries on a global scale

02. The story of Quantum Scape

Quantum Scape was founded in 2010, and it has been 10 years now. Major investors include Tesla co-founder JB Straubel, Bill Gates, etc., and Volkswagen is the main investor in the latter. In terms of Volkswagen's shareholding ratio in battery investment, QS accounts for 18.32%, which is similar to the 17.5% held by Northvolt, and then also established a 50% joint venture with QS's application incubation. Therefore, Volkswagen added an investment of US$200 million in June 2020 to help QS establish a solid-state battery mass production line in 2025. Logically, Volkswagen may become the first OEM customer of Quantum Scape's solid-state batteries.

Figure 2 Volkswagen’s shareholding ratio

Through this listing, QS received more than 1 billion US dollars in funding, which will continue to be invested in the mass production line of solid-state batteries. Due to the first-day effect, it is currently favored by investors. Now the big question is whether this favored company with nearly 2 billion US dollars from the US market can really produce solid-state batteries in the next five years. Note: According to various sources, QS's technical route and actual attempts are actually different. It is really difficult to investigate from the outside whether it has been finalized or whether there have been any substantial breakthroughs.

Figure 3 Awesome PPT. With nearly 1 billion USD of private investment and 1 billion USD of stock market funds, can it be implemented?

Summary: I think the successful listing of QS will stimulate several domestic companies to enter China's Science and Technology Innovation Board, and use this round of new energy boom to get funds to accelerate production. It is possible that in 2-3 years, we can see the results of this wave of money-burning by these companies.