This morning, Stable Energy introduced that long-time investor BMW Group is increasing an present joint growth settlement to license its expertise with a purpose to construct its personal solid-state batteries in Germany. Beneath the settlement, BMW will acquire entry to Stable Energy’s battery analysis and growth, cell design, and manufacturing experience to expedite the expertise alongside its accomplice. That being mentioned, Stable Energy isn’t licensing all of its expertise.
Stable Energy ($SLDP) is a Colorado-based battery developer specializing in solid-state, sulfide-based electrolyte expertise with hopes to convey scalable cells to the EV world at or close to value parity to present lithium-ion batteries. We’ve got lined the corporate since 2017 when BMW Group first invested in its expertise.
Since then, fellow automakers like Ford and Hyundai have invested in Stable Energy, along with a partnership with SK Innovation introduced in October of 2021. This previous June, Stable Energy introduced a solid-state battery pilot manufacturing line forward of a timeline to ship the cells to each Ford and BMW earlier than yr’s finish.
As we speak, Stable Energy introduced that BMW Group particularly received’t simply be receiving solid-state prototypes for EV testing, however might be granted entry to its battery know-how to assist develop the expertise concurrently.
BMW will get R&D license for solid-state battery tech
Per a press launch from Stable Energy this morning, it has deepened its long-running relationship with BMW Group as a part of a joint growth settlement.
By gaining a license to Stable Energy’s analysis and growth, cell design, and manufacturing practices, BMW Group intends to duplicate Stable Energy’s pilot manufacturing line at its personal facility in Germany with a purpose to produce prototype batteries cells of its personal.
On account of the expanded growth settlement, each Stable Energy and BMW Group intend to carry out complementary cell growth and manufacturing actions at their respective amenities to expedite the aptitude of the solid-state battery expertise. Stable Energy COO Dr. Derek Johnson spoke:
We couldn’t be extra enthusiastic about rising our relationship with BMW, an organization that has demonstrated a powerful dedication to Stable Energy’s expertise for the previous seven years. We consider this expanded partnership and elevated collaboration is an added vote of confidence in Stable Energy’s expertise growth.
In trade for entry to Stable Energy’s proprietary solid-state expertise and manufacturing know-how, BMW Group has agreed to pay $20 million via June 2024 (topic to attaining sure milestones that haven’t been shared but). Whereas the expanded joint growth settlement does embrace the sharing of knowledge pertaining to proprietary battery expertise, it doesn’t embrace a license to mental property associated to Stable Energy’s electrolyte materials, a pillar of its present enterprise.
The businesses state that whereas BMW implements its solid-state prototype manufacturing line abroad, its staff will work alongside the Stable Energy personnel on the latter’s amenities to proceed to optimize the cell manufacturing processes. As soon as the manufacturing line is up and operating in Germany, Stable Energy nonetheless expects to provide BMW Group with its electrolyte materials for all prototype cell manufacturing. Stable Energy’s interim CEO, president, and chair David Jansen spoke about the way forward for solid-state batteries in EVs:
Increasing our relationship with BMW is additional proof that each firms consider Stable Energy is heading in the right direction with its expertise growth. I’m inspired by the progress our staff continues to make towards attaining our firm’s targets. Over the previous a number of months, we started delivering 20 Ah cells to our companions, together with BMW, for preliminary testing and commenced manufacturing of our preliminary EV cells. We stay up for bringing our electrolyte manufacturing facility on-line and commencing the formal automotive qualification course of.
How Stable Energy’s expanded relationship with BMW Group could have an effect on entry to solid-state battery expertise for different buyers like Ford stays unclear at this level. This information follows one other milestone earlier this week by which fellow solid-state battery developer QuantumScape started delivering 24-layer battery cells to automotive OEMs for testing.
