Battery and car manufacturers have long been competing over charging speed, and the new development reported in the material fits into this race. According to the authors, the solid-state cells are designed for a 800 V architecture and are already leaving the laboratory for the stage of preparation for production. However, the specific participants of the consortium are not named in the report, and we have not yet been able to independently confirm the claimed figures. So let us sort out what is known for certain.
The claimed results — 1200 thermal load cycles and 94% retained capacity — could not be found in open sources. The closest example in meaning belongs to the Chinese company Sunwoda: it claimed a polymer composite solid-state battery that withstands more than 1200 cycles while retaining capacity above 80%. But even there, these are results obtained by the company, and the thermal tests were conducted on a separate cell, not on a finished pack in a car.
The speed, meanwhile, can be checked against real data. The Finnish company Donut Lab commissioned independent tests from the state research center VTT. In them, the cell reached 80% in about 9,5 minutes when charging at 5C, and at 11C — in 4,5 minutes. A full charge took a little more than seven minutes. But this is a laboratory cell, and the transition to a motorcycle turned out to be far more modest: in a public test at a station with a capacity of about 100 kW, the test pack of the Verge TS motorcycle reached 80% in about 12 minutes.
Why chase minutes at all? Modern batteries may need from 30 to 45 minutes to reach 80%, according to estimates by researchers at the University of California, Riverside. The reason lies in the design: conventional lithium-ion cells use a liquid electrolyte, and a strong current during fast charging can damage both the electrolyte and the anode. A solid electrolyte makes it safer to "pump" energy into the battery, and that is precisely what makes fast charging realistic.
An important caveat that is often omitted also matters. When manufacturers talk about "10 minutes," they usually mean the range from 10% to 80%, not a full charge from zero. After 80%, the battery management system reduces power to protect the cells from overheating and accelerated wear, so the last percentages charge noticeably more slowly. In other words, figures should only be compared under identical conditions.
As for the interests of the participants, it is clear that it matters to them to reach the premium electric vehicle market faster. But the main question remains open: how much such a battery will cost and whether production will be able to maintain quality at mass output. In parallel, scientists in laboratories in various countries are looking for ways to cut charging time even further. For example, researchers from China and California reported charging to 80% in about nine minutes, but so far this concerns only laboratory samples.
For the driver, the main gain is fewer stops on the highway and less time at the charging station. If the claimed characteristics are confirmed in production cars, this is exactly what could remove one of the main complaints about electric vehicles. For now, though, loud figures should be treated with caution and one should wait for test results in real cars and in mass production.
