Leading battery material executives, who are witnessing breakthroughs in the development of next-generation “solid-state” batteries, are bringing forward their forecasts for the take-up of the technology, previously dismissed as too expensive and difficult to produce.
So-called solid-state battery technology has been regarded as the most promising development to solve the problems of the lithium-ion batteries in use at present, such as the driving range they provide on a single charge and their risk of catching fire.
Although development timetables have been pushed back repeatedly, Mathias Miedreich, chief executive of Umicore, one of the world’s largest producers of battery materials, is now expecting solid-state batteries to take more than 10 per cent of the global market by 2030.