Promised as revolutionary for autonomy and rapid charging, but systematically postponed: the solid battery seems to be a hell of a sea serpent for the electric car. The director of battery operations at BMW has just announced that this technology will not arrive in series before 2030, several years behind the initial schedule.
BMW may well be a brand historically linked to large thermal engines, but it is developing a real strategy around electric cars. An adventure that began ten years ago with the small i3, but which is exploding today with a truly complete and successful range (the proof with our test of the i5, the electric 5 Series).
The German brand does not intend to stop there and has already announced the Neue Klasse for several years, a new range presented as revolutionary which should arrive in 2025. Among the avalanche of innovations, the brand mentioned the arrival of solid batteries in 2027… but it will be a little later, as we learn from the media BMWblog.
Minimum three years late
“We won’t see a production BMW with a solid battery before 2030” : it’s Kurt Vandeputte, head of the battery department at BMW, who announces the bad news. The brand already has cells of this technology at prototype stage in its dedicated center (the Cell Manufacturing Competence CenterCMCC for short), but the path to series production seems to be more complicated than expected.
Note that BMW is not the only one to have its feet in trouble with this technology. Toyota, which is also investing massively in solid-state batteries, has also announced a delay in their arrival in series: not before 2030, and in very small quantities at the beginning.
The fact remains that, even late, this technology continues to be extremely interesting. To make it short, a solid-state battery has a much greater energy density than all the different lithium batteries currently available, therefore making it possible to store more energy in a given space and weight, while being more economical to produce and more safe in case of fire. Enough to offer ranges of more than 1000 km and recharging in 5 minutes. Everything is explained in our dedicated file.
BMW still has other solutions in the pipeline
Let’s not panic: despite this bad news, BMW has more than one trick up its sleeve regarding the evolution of its batteries. The Neue Klasse that we talked about above should therefore receive a new generation of lithium-ion battery with promising characteristics as soon as it comes onto the market.
Compared to current batteries, we would need to count on 30% additional autonomy (objective 800 km on the WLTP mixed cycle), charging times reduced by 30% thanks to the 800 volt architecture, an improvement in the energy density of 20% and even a 50% reduction in production costs. A technology that the brand is proud of, perhaps even a little too much…
In terms of prototypes, the brand is also making progress thanks to its partnership with the start-up Our Next Energy. The latter is developing an astonishing dual-chemistry battery, and has just installed one in an iX. Result: 980 km in one charge! Even if this technology will not arrive on the market anytime soon by the company’s own admission, it is always good to know that work is underway.