I think this kind of article crops up every few months, and it’s my understanding of the current situation (pun intended) that we have BEVs operating with “semi-solid state” battery systems on the market, but true solid state has been just around the corner for quite a while.
This popped up in my inbox, and I’m wondering if we think they might actually pull it off.
It’s an older article from back in January and it appears that The Verge TS Pro May actually be orderable on their website. https://www.vergemotorcycles.com/ts-pro/
There is at least one article claiming it’s in production
So will this be the beginning of a huge revolution?
Or just another kickstarter wish-it-REALLY–was-for-sale?
Either way, 737lb-ft of torque through a single tire is nucking futz!
For the last twenty or so years there has been a string of breathless announcement of some breakthrough battery technology that’s going to Change Everything™. Most never make it past press release, some work in a lab environment provided you have ample PhD labor to go around, fewer make it into sampling and lose the collision with reality, and precious few become niche market curiosities.
Donut Lab has gotten a lot of PR for their wild claims. Unfortunately once you get away from the self-promotion and hucksters, there’s skepticism about their claims (Engadget), (Auto Evolution), (Elektrek). Primary concerns are hitting energy density (400Wh/kg), cycle life (100,000!!! cycles), and whether it’s truly a solid-state cell built without lithium or other more exotic elements. The mention of supercapacitor in the Engadget piece reminds me of a previous hype cycle sometime back - EEStor who made interesting claims in ~2007 based on the properties of intermediaries rather than assembled prototypes and ultimately disappeared.
Hell, Tesla and Panasonic are struggling to achieve the miracles they claimed the 4680 li-ion formfactor was going to deliver and that’s primarily process engineering rather than wunder materials science breakthroughs.
Meanwhile over the same time period, conventional lithium chemistries have seen marked improvements in energy density, power-delivery, cost reduction, cycle life, etc as EVs gain market share.
