Solid-state batteries have become the next frontier in EV development, and the list of companies rushing to bring them to the market seemingly grows longer by the week. China-based SAIC claims it will mass-produce solid-state batteries by 2026, while Nissan hopes to beat Toyota to the finish line and Honda has said it’s close to launching production several times. BMW started developing solid-state batteries several years ago, but it claims that they’re still too expensive to mass-produce. Instead, its upcoming Neue Klasse range of EVs will enter production with improved lithium-ion batteries.
“We can do [solid-state] now, but the cost in the packaging makes no sense to do,” said Martin Schuster, BMW’s vice president of next-generation battery tech, in an interview with British magazine Autocar. He added that solid-state batteries won’t be required for about eight years. power lithium battery
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Instead, BMW will focus on making improvements to the lithium-ion battery that powers the vast majority of EVs on the road today.
“The most important thing is the lithium-ion battery: It’s not finished,” Schuster asserted. “You [still] see improvements. There is no one and only battery. It will not come. But, the lithium-ion battery, at the moment, [can] improve in a steady way.”
He noted that BMW is working to bring costs down because that’s one of the most important points for buyers who are in the market for an electric car. And while a solid-state battery can, in theory, charge much faster than a lithium-ion battery, BMW’s next-gen technology can add about 186 miles of range in about 10 minutes.
Lithium-ion it is, then, and the Munich-based brand has numerous improvements in the pipeline. Using an 800-volt architecture will allow its upcoming sixth-generation electric technology to deliver 30% faster charging and 30% more range than the fifth-generation system found in today’s crop of EVs, like the i4. The batteries will be thinner, too, so they’ll be easier to integrate into lower-riding models including sports cars from M.
The motors that the new battery will zap into motion will benefit from improvements as well, and there will be more drivetrain configurations available. In its most basic layout, the drivetrain will consist of a single motor positioned directly above the rear axle for rear-wheel drive. BMW will continue to offer its through-the-road xDrive all-wheel drive system, which will add a second motor to the front axle, and some cars will even get a three- or four-motor system. I’m guessing that the three-motor layout will assign two motors to the rear axle, while the four-motor layout will place a motor behind each wheel. It will likely be reserved for high-performance cars, like the electric version of the next M3.
BMW’s Neue Klasse range of EVs will inaugurate the sixth-generation technology, though the improved batteries will also power some of the brand’s other electric cars. The first modern-day Neue Klasse will be an SUV that’s scheduled to enter production in Hungary by the end of 2025.
Mercedes-Benz has started testing a solid-state battery capable of delivering 25% more range than a comparable lithium-ion battery. It’s still at the prototype stage, so it’s not available in a mass-produced car, but it looks like the brand is about to one-up arch-rival BMW in the EV battery race. Schuster told Autocar he disagrees. “They are in a price range which is not competitive,” he said, referring to the solid-state battery that Mercedes is testing. “That’s fact today. When we will see it in a competition against lithium-ion, then [we will take note],” he added.
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