Solid-state battery technology “may not be necessary” for future electric cars due to developments in lithium-ion-based batteries.
That’s according to Mercedes chief technology officer Markus Schäfer, who said improvements to the energy density of lithium ion batteries had been “unexpected” to the point where they could end up being “neck and neck” with solid-state batteries in terms of cost and energy density.
Solid-state battery technology has long been touted as the next breakthrough for battery-electric vehicles for its supposedly better energy density and therefore lower cost, but Schäfer says he doesn’t see them as having “come with a major cost advantage or energy advantage” because “so many people have worked on the conventional cells, making them so much better”.
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