Donut Lab’s miracle battery is just not heard – At the same time, the competitor’s solid state battery is already being tested in an electric car in public traffic

We are still waiting for the solid-state miracle batteries promised by the Finnish Donut Lab. However, the competitors are not resting on their laurels, there is already an electric car with a solid state battery in traffic elsewhere. Car giant Stellantis and American battery developer Factorial Energy have started the first road tests of solid-state batteries in North America.

The companies are testing the FEST battery technology developed by Factorial in the Dodge Charger Daytona test car. It is the first time that solid-state battery technology has been integrated into an electric car in North American road traffic, says Electrek.

Transferring the new battery technology from laboratory conditions to real traffic required significant engineering work from the companies. The batteries were integrated into Stellantis’ STLA Large base structure, and engineers modified the car’s control systems and battery box structure to improve safety and performance.

“We have built the batteries from the chemistry of the cells to the architecture of the battery case together to enable tests in the real world. This is exactly the kind of deep collaboration covering the entire value chain that solid-state batteries have always required”, CEO of Factorial Siyu Huang commented in the announcement.

Promising test results in the background

The road tests that have started now were preceded by a development phase in which the companies confirmed that Factorial’s 77 ampere-hour FEST cells have reached an energy density of 375 Wh/kg and can withstand more than 600 charging cycles.

In the laboratory, the cells have been shown to charge very quickly: from 15% to 90% in just 18 minutes. In addition, they maintained their performance in extreme temperatures ranging from -30 degrees Celsius to +45 degrees Celsius. The discharge current of the cells reaches up to 4C level.

According to Factorial, the solid-state cells it has developed can improve the operating range of electric cars by up to 50 percent of the current range. This would allow for a range of over 600 miles (about 965 kilometers) on a single charge.

Cooperation with several car giants

In addition to Stellantis, Factorial also collaborates with other major car manufacturers, such as Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai and Kia, to commercialize its technology.

Last September, Mercedes-Benz tested a modified EQS model equipped with Factorial cells, which was driven approximately 1,200 kilometers on a single charge. CTO of Mercedes-Benz Mark Schäfer at the time described battery technology as a real game changer for electric cars.

In addition to the automotive industry, Factorial plans to expand its battery technology to the robotics, aviation and defense sectors in the future.

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