Mercedes has been a big advocate of electrification from the start, and while its recent moves may indicate it doesn’t intend to abandon combustion engines entirely just yet, it seems it may still have an ace up its sleeve.
FEST batteries with solid electrolyte
Solid electrolyte batteries are almost the Holy Grail of electric motoring. There has been a lot of talk about them for many years and apparently many companies are working on their design, but unfortunately this does not translate into mass implementation into production. For now, we only hear promises that this type of battery will not only allow for achieving much higher energy density, but will also be safer, can be charged faster, and will also be lighter. In a word, solid electrolyte is supposed to solve all the problems of electrification and allow for more market competition with combustion cars.
The only problem is that for now, these assurances are only on paper. Toyota has been announcing a breakthrough for several years, but even in its internal plans, it rather mentions the end of the current decade and the price of new batteries much higher than LFP or even NMC cells. Mercedes, on the other hand, is more optimistic. Thanks to cooperation with the American startup Factorial, in which such industry giants as Hyundai and Stellantis have also invested, Mercedes is to be one of the first to receive a battery with a solid electrolyte called Solstice. Such a cell uses FEST technology – (Factorial Electrolyte System Technology), which is nothing more than the previously mentioned solid electrolyte.
Mercedes ready for testing in a few months
The American company uses a sulfur-based electrolyte, which is supposed to be non-flammable and resistant to temperatures of up to 90 degrees Celsius. Thanks to this, the cooling system of such a battery is supposed to be less complicated than in the case of NMC cells. Factorial also announces an energy density of 450 Wh/kg, which as a result should increase the range of finished cars by up to 80%, also due to the lower weight of the entire cell. According to the company’s representatives, a range of around 1000 km with their batteries will not be anything extraordinary, and their size smaller by 1/3 will allow it to be achieved also in smaller vehicles.
These announcements look great on paper, of course, but now it’s time for them to actually be used in production cars. Mercedes is pouring hope into our hearts and announcing that it will start such tests in a few months. However, it’s still early days and there are many indications that even if Factorial cells meet the expectations placed in them, we will have to wait a few more years for the first cars. There is probably no chance that solid electrolyte will appear in production vehicles before the end of the current decade, and this may mean that a kind of stagnation in this segment will continue.
Source: antyweb.pl
