VW Near Decision on Novel New Battery System

Volkswagen AG is likely to decide in July whether to commit to an "all-electronic battery" developed by researchers at Stanford University that promises huge improvements in power density and cycle life, Bloomberg News reports.

Media reports say the solid-state technology could triple the range of today's electric vehicles, helping to make them directly competitive with piston-powered cars.

Researchers describe their system as a new class of electrical energy storage device that could lead to smaller, lighter, longer lasting, more powerful and virtually fireproof batteries. In 2010 the scientists created a San Jose, Calif.-based company, Quantumscape Corp., to commercialize the technology. VW acquired a 5% stake in Quantumscape last December.

The new technology stores energy through the movement of electrons rather than ions. It also uses a novel architecture that uses "electron/hole redox instead of capacitive polarization of a double layer."

VW Chairman Martin Winterkorn tells Bloomberg "progress is being made" on the new technology. The news service notes that Quantumscape has posted 11 job openings that include a head of battery manufacturing and an engineering manager to head a team to develop a new energy storage technology from concept through stable production.