South Korea is investing 20 trillion won ($15 billion) by 2030 in the world’s first solid-state batteries for electric vehicles. According to a statement from the presidential office acquired by Bloomberg and reported on Thursday, the country plans to be the first in the world to commercialize solid-state batteries.
The investment will be jointly made by public and private sectors and the ambitious plan was announced during a meeting hosted by President Yoon Suk Yeol Thursday.
Solid-state batteries, as their name suggests, are batteries that have both solid electrodes and solid electrolytes. These types of batteries have been rapidly developing in the last few years alongside electric vehicles and they are touted by many as the next generation in battery technology.
They offer incredible safety and relatively low manufacturing costs. This is because they don’t have a liquid core, like modern batteries, but rather a solid substance. This has various benefits, including the fact that these batteries may be produced on a smaller scale and are trickier to ignite.
Viewed with skepticism
However, the world’s largest battery maker, China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., has approached the new batteries with scepticism as they are an emerging technology. One of the main problems with the batteries is that they begin to experience issues after numerous cycles of charging and discharging.
South Korea does not seem concerned.
The nation, according to Bloomberg, also has a plan to quadruple its cathode-material production capacity in the next five years and begin commercial output of lithium-iron phosphate batteries from 2025.
Just last month, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research announced they may have found a way to make solid-state batteries longer-lasting. In fact, some studies all the way back to 2019 have made claims that the newly developed batteries could one day replace the ever so popular lithium-ion batteries.
