Factorial’s Solstice is an all-solid-state battery that can “revolutionize the safety, performance, and sustainability of the next generation of electric vehicles,” the company claims. (Image: Factorial)

Earlier this year, Factorial Energy CEO Siyu Huang told SAE Media her company was “very committed” to bringing solid-state battery technology to the market sooner than basically anyone else thanks to a polymer-based solid-state and quasi-solid-state electrolyte system could theoretically utilize over 80 percent of the manufacturing processes already used in today’s lithium-ion battery manufacturing.

At The Battery Show North America in Detroit this week, Factorial Energy Chief Financial and Business Officer Emlen Fischer told SAE Media that the plan remains in effect following the June delivery of B-samples of its 106+Ah lithium-metal solid-state batteries to partner Mercedes-Benz.

“When you're shipping real B-samples, it means people are thinking about, what is the module architecture? What's the pack build? What does the vehicle look like? And I think you haven't seen that really before in a global OEM using solid state,” he said. “What's really exciting for us is being on the path to actually seeing these in vehicles on the road, not just in samples.”

In September, Factorial announced its all-solid-state chemistry Solstice platform  , which is not so different from its quasi-solid-state tech. In fact, Fischer said that Factorial’s plan was always to do both. Factorial’s quasi-solid-state manufacturing process was developed to use much of the raw material supply chain already procured for today’s lithium batteries. It also uses similar manufacturing equipment. The difference lies in the quasi-solid, polymer-based gel electrolyte, which replaces the liquid electrolyte in a traditional lithium-ion battery. In an all-solid-state battery, the electrolyte is totally solid, which for Factorial means using a silicon-based architecture. Fischer said many other solid-state start-ups are also using this architecture.

Factorial Energy Chief Financial and Business Officer Emlen Fischer. (Image: Sebastian Blanco)

The industry is also slowing coming to the realization that different chemistries will be useful for different applications. Lower-cost EVs benefit from the proliferation of LFP batteries, while longer-range EVs are more likely to use NMC chemistries. Factorial’s options will be useful alongside these other battery types and are not simply out to replace them. Weight, cost, energy density, space, and other considerations will determine what packs go in what EVs, he said.

“[The question] goes from ‘What is NMC and what is LFP?’ to ‘What is NMC, what is quasi solid state, what is fully solid state, and what other chemistries might fit depending on what the application is? It’s also understanding that the market is big enough and that it's going to support multiple technologies.”

One obvious theme at the Battery Show is the influence of Chinese OEMs and battery suppliers, and the obvious leadership China has. As Voltaic CEO Tal Sholklapper told SAE Media, North American automakers and battery suppliers have just five years to challenge China for battery technology dominance. Fischer was even less optimistic.

“I think they're being generous with five years,” he said. “Technology transitions are times where industry structure can shift, and the U.S. has historically invented the technology and not industrialized it. Now we have a new technology being industrialized, and you can decide to lead it or you cannot, but the default will be that we will not be there because other places have invested much more in terms of supporting the environment around scale-up, taking the risk around scale up, investing in universities and schools to create labor pools that make it cost-effective while also understanding the fundamental cost aspects of how you make this economical. You can either look at it holistically and have a chance or not. If you wanted to evaluate where, over the next five years, the most incentive dollars are going to go, I don't think you'll find anybody who says the majority of it's actually going to U.S. battery labs. I think that's the part that's going to be the missed opportunity.”

This article was written by Sebastian Blanco, Editor-in-Chief, Automotive Engineering, SAE International. For more information visit, www.factorialenergy.com  .