Asked what they most want from an electric car, many motorists would list three things: a long driving range, a short charging time and a price competitive with a similarly equipped vehicle that has an internal-combustion engine. To help with those goals, carmakers have been looking for ways to replace the traditional lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries that power most modern electric vehicles (evs) with more advanced “solid-state” versions. These new types of superbatteries have long promised faster charging and much greater driving range. Finally, after years of technical problems, efforts to make them are coming to fruition, with the first solid-state Li-ion batteries due to go into production within the next few years.

当被问及对电动汽车的最大期待是什么时，许多驾车者会列出三点：行驶里程长、充电速度快、在价格上能与配置相似的内燃机汽车展开竞争。为了实现这些目标，汽车制造商一直设法使用更先进的“固态”电池取代大多数现代电动汽车使用的传统锂电池。长期以来，这些新型的超级电池一直承诺充电速度更快，行驶里程更远。在面临多年的技术难题之后，制造超级电池的努力终于取得了成果，首批固态锂电池将在未来几年内投入生产。
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Toyota, the world’s biggest carmaker, began looking at solid-state batteries in 2012. Over the years it has even intended to show off working prototypes, although little has appeared. The firm recently announced it had made a “technological breakthrough”, however, with plans to start manufacturing a solid-state battery as early as 2027. Toyota claims its new battery will provide an ev with a range of around 1,200km (746 miles), which is about twice that of many existing models, and can be recharged in around ten minutes.

全球最大的汽车制造商丰田(Toyota)从2012年开始研究固态电池。多年来，丰田公司甚至打算展示工作原型，但一直没什么动静。但该公司最近宣布已经取得了“技术突破”，计划最早于2027年开始生产固态电池。丰田公司声称，其新型电池将为电动汽车提供大约1200公里(746英里)的续航里程，大约是现有许多车型的两倍，充电时间约为10分钟。
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Electrifying

振奋人心

Toyota is not alone. Similar performance figures are being touted by other producers developing solid-state Li-ion batteries. Nissan, for instance, is building a pilot plant in Yokohama that will start making test versions next year. A similar plant is planned in Germany by bmw in partnership with Solid Power, a battery developer based in Colorado. QuantumScape, a Silicon Valley startup, has started shipping prototype solid-state batteries to Volkswagen, its main backer.

丰田公司并非个例。其他开发固态锂电池的生产商也在吹捧类似的性能数据。例如，日产公司正在横滨建设一座试验工厂，将于明年开始生产测试版本。宝马公司计划与总部位于科罗拉多州的电池开发商Solid Power合作，在德国建设一座类似的工厂。硅谷初创公司QuantumScape已经开始向其主要支持者大众汽车(Volkswagen)发运原型固态电池。

It is, perhaps, hardly surprising that developing a solid-state battery has taken so long. Getting a new type of battery to work in a laboratory is one thing, but scaling it up so that millions can be produced in a factory is a difficult business. Although they were invented in the late 1970s, Li-ion batteries themselves were not fully commercialised until the early 1990s, at first for portable electronic devices, such as laptop computers and cell phones, and then as bigger versions that could be used to power a new generation of evs.

也许开发固态电池花了这么长时间并不奇怪。让一种新型电池在实验室中工作是一回事，但提高产能以使工厂达到百万产量是一件困难的事情。虽然锂电池在20世纪70年代末就被发明出来了，但直到20世纪90年代初，锂电池才完全实现商业化，起初用于便携式电子设备，例如笔记本电脑和手机，后来大号的锂电池应用于驱动新一代电动汽车。
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Electric cars have been around since the dawn of motoring. Indeed, Clara Ford much preferred her 1914 Detroit Electric to the petrol-powered vehicles made by her husband, Henry. But these early evs, and others that appeared in subsequent years, were largely powered by dozens of heavy lead-acid batteries, which were expensive, provided limited range and often sloth-like progress. Lightweight and capable of storing a large charge, the Li-ion battery brought down costs and increased range (see chart 1), allowing the electrification of transport to begin in earnest. Solid-state Li-ion batteries could bring about another transformation.

自汽车问世以来，电动汽车就存在了。事实上，克拉拉·福特更喜欢她的1914年款底特律电动汽车，而不是她丈夫亨利·福特制造的汽油动力汽车。但这些早期的以及随后几年出现的电动汽车主要由几十块笨重的铅酸电池供电，它们价格昂贵，续航里程有限，而且通常车速缓慢。重量轻和储电量大的锂电池降低了成本，增加了行驶里程，真正开启了交通的电气化时代。固态锂电池可能带来又一场变革。

Carmakers were originally attracted to solid-state cells to improve safety because, as powerful as they are, traditional Li-ion cells come with a risk. This is because they contain a liquid electrolyte which is typically made from organic solvents, and these are extremely flammable. Hence, if a Li-ion battery is damaged, which can happen in an accident or if it overheats whilst recharging, it can explode into flames. Using a non-flammable, solid electrolyte prevents that. Solid electrolytes can be made from a variety of chemicals, including polymers and ceramics. But even Toyota, the master of mass production, initially found it difficult to get solid-state cells to work efficiently over a long period of time.

汽车制造商最初被固态电池所吸引是为了提高安全性，因为同样强大的传统锂电池存在风险。这是因为它们含有一种通常由有机溶剂制成的液体电解质，非常易燃。所以如果锂电池在事故中损坏，或者在充电时过热，可能会爆炸起火。使用非易燃的固体电解质可以防止这种情况，固体电解质可以由多种化学物质制成，包括聚合物和陶瓷。但是，即使是擅于大规模生产的丰田公司最初也发现，固态电池很难长时间高效工作。

By itself, a solid electrolyte does not necessarily improve the performance of a battery. But it does allow a Li-ion battery, for example, to be redesigned so that it can be made even smaller and lighter, and thus pack more energy into less space. It also allows engineers to broaden the range of materials which they can use to produce a Li-ion battery and tinker with how it works.

固体电解质本身不一定能提高电池的性能，但它确实能使锂电池得到重新设计，例如使它变得更小更轻，使得更小的空间容纳更多的电能。固体电解质还能使工程师扩大用来生产锂电池的材料范围，并对工作原理加以调整。
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Despite their fiery nature, electrolytes are used in a liquid form for good reason. Ions are charged particles and are created at one of the battery’s electrodes, the cathode, when the cell is charged, causing electrons to be stripped from lithium atoms (see chart 2). The electrolyte provides a medium through which the ions migrate to a second electrode, the anode. As they do so, the ions pass through a porous separator that keeps the electrodes apart to prevent a short-circuit. The electrons created at the cathode, meanwhile, travel towards the anode along the wires of the external charging circuit. Ions and electrons reunite at the anode where they are stored. When the battery discharges, the process reverses, with electrons in the circuit powering a device—which in the case of an ev is its electric motor.

尽管电解质具有易燃性，但以液体形式使用是有道理的。离子是带电荷的粒子，当电池充电时，电池的阴极产生离子，导致电子从锂原子中剥离。电解质提供了一种介质，使离子向电池的阳极转移。在此过程中，离子穿过一层多孔隔膜，该隔膜将电极隔开以防止短路。同时，阴极产生的电子沿着外部充电电路的导线向阳极转移。离子和电子在储存它们的阳极重新汇合。当电池放电时，这个过程正好相反，电路中的电子为设备供电——在电动汽车中为电动机供电。

The medium is the message

媒介即讯息

For all this to work efficiently, the ions need to move between the electrolyte and the electrodes with ease. The electrodes are coated with various materials, in the form of layers of minute particles. As the liquid electrolyte in a traditional Li-ion battery can flow into these layers and immerse the particles, it provides a large surface area through with the ions can pass. A solid electrolyte cannot flow into all the nooks and crannies, so it needs to be compressed hard against the electrodes to make a good contact. Doing this in the construction of the battery, however, can damage the electrodes. Solving this so-called conductivity problem is one of the main technical challenges in manufacturing solid-state batteries, says Mathias Miedreich, the boss of Umicore, a Brussels-based company that supplies battery materials.

为了使这一切高效地工作，离子需要在电解质与电极之间轻松转移。电极上涂有微小颗粒层形态的各种材料，由于传统锂电池的液体电解质可以流入颗粒层，并浸没颗粒，因此提供了较大的表面积供离子通过。固体电解质无法流入每一个角落，所以需要紧紧地压在电极上才能实现良好的接触。然而，在电池构造中这样做可能会损坏电极。总部位于布鲁塞尔的电池材料供应公司 Umicore 的老板马蒂亚斯·米德赖希表示，解决这种所谓的导电性问题是制造固态电池的主要技术挑战之一。

Despite their initial problems, in the past year Japanese carmakers have made great advances in working out how to manufacture solid-state Li-ion batteries at scale, says Mr Miedreich. Having been a bit of a laggard in launching evs, he believes, they plan to use these new batteries to overtake competitors. Perhaps, but the race to build a superbattery is far from won, not least because the contenders come in many different forms.

米德赖希表示，尽管最初存在问题，但去年日本汽车制造商在大规模制造固态锂电池方面取得了重大进展。他认为由于在推出电动汽车方面有点落后，他们打算使用这些新电池来超越竞争对手。也许吧，但制造超级电池的竞赛远未分出胜负，尤其是因为竞争对手制造出各种不同的固态电池。

Some solid-state batteries are already on the market. For instance, Blue Solutions, a French company that is part of the giant Bolloré Group, produces one containing a polymer as its electrolyte. As this requires a high operating temperature, the battery is best suited to vehicles that, once the battery is warmed up, remain in constant use. Hence it is being used to power electric buses.

有些固态电池已经上市。 例如，Bolloré集团旗下的法国公司 Blue Solutions 生产的一种电池含有聚合物电解质。由于该电池需要较高的工作温度，所以它最适合一旦电池被加热，就能持续使用的车辆，所以被用于为电动公交车提供动力。

Others are something of an interim step, as they still contain small amounts of a liquid electrolyte to help with conductivity. Many of the Chinese battery-makers that dominate the market are working on semi-solid versions. Contemporary Amperex Technology (catl), a Chinese firm that makes more than a third of the world’s ev batteries, measured by their total capacity, says it could begin production later this year of a semi-solid version it calls a “condensed” battery. The company claims this will have both a high level of safety and a big storage capacity.

有些固态电池是过渡性产品，因为它们仍然含有少量的液体电解质来增强导电性。许多主导市场的中国电池制造商都在研发半固态电池。宁德时代是一家生产全球三分之一以上电动汽车电池（以总产量计算）的中国企业，该公司表示今年晚些时候将开始生产一种称为凝聚态电池的半固态电池。该公司声称，这种电池兼具高安全性和大容量。

A battery’s capacity can be measured by its specific energy, which is the amount of energy that can be stored by weight. According to catl, its condensed battery will be able to store up to 500 watt-hours per kilogram (wh/kg). The highest performing Li-ion batteries with liquid electrolytes presently available on the market tend to top out around 300wh/kg. Completely solid-state batteries might be able to reach 600wh/kg or beyond. Besides boosting the performance of evs on the road, batteries of such power and lightness will also greatly extend the range of small vertical-take-off-and-landing air taxis that are on the brink of being certified airworthy.

电池容量可以用比能来计算，比能是每单位质量所存储的能量。据宁德时代称，凝聚态电池将能够存储高达 500 瓦时每公斤 (wh/kg) 的能量。目前市面上最高性能的液体电解质锂电池的最高容量约为 300wh/kg 左右。全固态电池或许能够达到600wh/kg甚至更高。除了提高电动汽车的行驶性能之外，如此强大和轻巧的电池还将极大扩展小型垂直起降空中出租车的续航里程，这些出租车即将获得适航证。

Capacity, however, is just one characteristic of a battery. How quickly it can deliver its power, how long it will last and how much it will cost are just as important. But resolving these issues involves trade-offs. Increasing the amount of energy that can be stored, for instance, is likely to increase costs if more lithium is required. And regular fast-charging might shorten a battery’s life. The trick in getting the balance right depends on the battery materials that are chosen.

然而，容量只是电池的一项特性。电池的供电速度、寿命、成本也同样重要。但解决这些问题需要权衡取舍。例如，增加电池容量可能会增加成本（如果需要更多的锂），常规的快速充电可能会缩短电池寿命，取得平衡的诀窍在于所选的电池材料。
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Material issues

材料问题

Start with cathodes, the most expensive component in a Li-ion battery. In theory, solid-state batteries are fairly agnostic about which type to use. The two most common varieties of cathodes are so-called nmcs, which contain coatings of lithium along with various ratios of nickel, manganese and cobalt; and lfps, made from a blend of lithium iron phosphate. By avoiding the use of expensive nickel and cobalt, lfps are gaining in popularity. They are a particular Chinese speciality. But with a lower storage capacity than nmcs, they tend to be used in vehicles that do not require a high level of performance.

首先，阴极是锂电池最昂贵的部件。理论上，固态电池对于使用哪种材料是很难说清楚的。两种最常见的阴极是所谓的NMC，它含有锂涂层以及不同比例的镍、锰、钴；IFP由磷酸铁锂混合物制成。IFP因避免使用昂贵的镍和钴而越来越受欢迎，它们是中国特产。但它的容量低于NMC，因此常用于性能要求不高的车辆。

With hundreds of laboratories around the world working on new battery materials, other types of cathodes are bound to appear. Umicore, for example, has teamed up with Idemitsu Kosan, a Japanese producer of electrolytes, to develop a type of material called a catholyte, which combines cathode chemicals with a solid electrolyte to form a single layer. If it works, this would make battery construction even simpler. Scientists are also working on using sodium instead of lithium as a source of ions in a battery. Sodium is abundant and cheap, though lithium, as the lightest metal of all, would still have the edge in some transport applications.

随着世界上数百个实验室致力于新型电池材料的研究，其他类型的阴极必然会出现。例如，Umicore公司与日本电解质生产商出光兴产 (Idemitsu Kosan) 合作研究出一种称为阴极电解质的材料，它将阴极的化学物质与固体电解质合并为一层。如果可行的话，这将使电池的构造变得更加简单。科学家们也在研究使用钠代替锂作为电池中的离子来源。钠储量丰富且价格低廉，但锂作为最轻质的金属，在某些运输用途中仍具有优势。

As for anodes, changes are also afoot. At present, most anodes are made from graphite, a pure form of carbon extracted from a handful of mines, mostly in Mozambique or China, or produced synthetically in petrochemical works using carbon-intensive processes. Because a solid electrolyte reduces the risk of adverse reactions, materials such as silicon and certain metals, particularly lithium in its metal form, can be used instead. These can store more energy in less space than graphite, which allows batteries to be made smaller and lighter. Additional space is saved because a solid electrolyte can also double up as a separator.

阳极也在发生变革。目前，大多数阳极是由石墨制成的，石墨是一种单质状态的碳，主要是从莫桑比克或中国的少数矿山中提取出来的，或者是在石化工厂使用碳密集型工艺合成的。由于固体电解质降低了副反应的风险，因此可以使用硅和某些金属，尤其是金属锂等材料来代替。它们相比石墨能以更小的空间储存更多的能量，从而使电池变得更小更轻。由于固体电解质还可以兼作隔膜，因此可以节省空间。

Some solid-state batteries will be “anode-free”. This is the direction taken by QuantumScape. It uses a proprietary ceramic that acts as both separator and electrolyte, and which is placed between a cathode and a metal foil. When the battery is charged, lithium ions migrate through the solid electrolyte and build up on the foil, effectively plating it with lithium to form a working anode. When the battery discharges, the ions migrate back and the anode shrinks away.

有些固态电池将是“无阳极”型。这正是QuantumScape的研究方向，该公司采用一种专利陶瓷，既充当隔膜又充当电解质，并放置在阴极和金属箔之间。当电池充电时，锂离子通过固体电解质转移和积聚到金属箔上，有效地给金属箔镀上锂，形成工作阳极。当电池放电时，锂离子转移回来，阳极收缩。

Forming an anode this way does mean that the battery expands and contracts. This also happens in traditional Li-ion cells, by about 4% or so compared to some 15% in a QuantumScape cell, says Tim Holme, a co-founder of the company. This movement is accommodated for in the packaging of the cells, which are stacked into layers to form the modules that make up a complete ev battery.

以这种方式形成阳极确实意味着电池会膨胀和收缩。该公司的联合创始人蒂姆·霍尔姆表示，传统锂电池的膨胀和收缩率约为4%，而QuantumScape电池约为15%。电池的包装为这种变化预留出空间，电池被堆叠成多个模块，构成一个完整的电动汽车电池。

Besides a long range and a fast charging time, QuantumScape says its battery will also have an extended “cycle life”. This is a measure of how many times it can be charged and discharged before the battery’s capacity degrades to below 90% and its performance level starts to fall. The QuantumScape battery should be good for at least 800 cycles, says Dr Holme. So, if each charge provided only an average range of around 500km, it would still give an ev a lifetime range of some 400,000km—which is good for any vehicle. Being ceramic, the battery’s separator also resists the formation of dendrites, adds Dr Holme. These are finger-like metallic microstructures which can grow inside a liquid electrolyte and cause a short circuit. Semi-solid batteries, including the condensed variety, could still be vulnerable to this.

QuantumScape公司表示，除了续航里程长和充电速度快之外，其电池还将具有更长的“循环寿命”。这是衡量电池容量衰减到90%以下，性能开始下降之前充放电次数的指标。Holme博士表示，QuantumScape公司的电池应该至少可以循环 800 次。因此，如果每次充电只能提供约 500 公里的平均续航里程，电动汽车的里程寿命仍可达约 40万公里——这对任何车辆来说都是不错的。Holme博士补充道，由于电池的隔膜是陶瓷材质，因此也能防止锂枝晶的形成。锂枝晶是手指状的金属微观结构，会在液体电解质内生长并导致短路。半固态电池仍然有可能出现这个问题，包括凝聚态电池。

On the production line

生产线上

Just how good these new batteries turn out to be will not really be known until they arrive in cars and manufacturers’ claims can be tested. The advertised range of existing evs can be unachievable in real driving conditions. The first semi-solid batteries should appear in cars in 2025-26, says Xiaoxi He of IDTechEx, a firm of analysts. She expects the first all-solid versions, like those being developed by Toyota and others, to appear in 2028.

这些新电池到底有多好，只有等它们用在汽车上，制造商的说法得到验证后才能真正知道。现有电动汽车所宣传的续航里程在实际驾驶条件下可能无法实现。数据分析师事务所IDTechEx 的何晓曦表示，首批半固态电池将于2025-26 年用在汽车上。她预计丰田等公司研发的首批全固态电池将于 2028 年用在汽车上。
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At first the numbers will be small as companies embark on trial production before investing billions of dollars in converting existing “gigafactories” to make the new batteries or building new ones. That means the batteries will be expensive with early applications in luxury and high-performance vehicles, adds Dr He. So it could be well into the 2030s before cheaper solid-state batteries become widely available in family cars.

最初的产量将会很少，因为公司先要进行试产，然后投入数十亿美元改造现有的“超级工厂”来制造新电池，或者建造新工厂。何博士补充道，这意味着早期应用于豪华和高性能汽车的电池将会很昂贵。因此可能要到本世纪30年代，比较便宜的固态电池才能广泛应用于家用汽车。

To a large extent, just how successful mass production is in bringing down costs will depend on how raw material prices develop over the next decade. “Solid-state batteries will significantly consume more lithium,” says Fabian Duffner, of Porsche Consulting, which is run as an independent part of the German sports-car manufacturer. Depending on how they are made, he estimates batteries containing higher-capacity cathodes and anodes will need 40-100% more lithium. At the same time, producers will also need additional lithium as they increasingly switch more of their production away from combustion-engine vehicles to making evs.

在很大程度上，大规模生产在降低成本方面有多成功，将取决于未来十年原材料价格的走势。“固态电池将消耗更多的锂”，保时捷咨询公司的法比安·杜夫纳说道，该公司是这家德国跑车制造商的独立部门。他估计，正负极容量较高的电池对锂的需求量将增加40-100%，这取决于固态电池的制造方式。与此同时，制造商也将需要更多的锂，因为它们越来越多地将生产从内燃机汽车转向电动汽车。

Sometimes called “white gold”, lithium prices have been on a rollercoaster. Much of the lithium market is dominated by China. Towards the end of last year prices for battery-grade lithium carbonate shot to around 600,000 yuan (some $80,000) a tonne, but have since slipped back to around 250,000 yuan—still about twice what it was two years ago. Nickel prices have also been volatile.

锂有时被称为“白金”，其价格一直出现“过山车式波动”。大部分锂市场由中国主导。去年年底，电池级碳酸锂的价格飙升至每吨60万元左右（约合 8 万美元），但此后又回落至25 万元左右，但仍相当于两年前的两倍。镍价也一直在波动。

In such a mercurial market companies need to secure their supply lines, adds Dr Duffner. That will be difficult because even though some new mines for lithium and other battery materials are being developed, particularly outside China, they can take a decade or more before they reach their full production.

达夫纳博士补充道，在这样一个瞬息万变的市场中，企业需要确保供应链的安全。这很困难，因为尽管一些锂和其他电池材料的新矿正在开发中，尤其是在中国境外，但可能需要十年或更长时间才能达到全面生产。

As a result, Dr Duffner expects many of the large carmakers to become more vertically integrated by teaming up with battery producers and materials companies. In Japan, Toyota, Nissan and Honda have already joined with Panasonic and gs Yuasa, a pair of battery-makers, to form a consortium to develop solid-state batteries.

因此，达夫纳博士预计，许多大型汽车制造商将通过与电池生产商和材料公司合作，变得更加纵向一体化。在日本，丰田、日产、本田已经与松下、汤浅这两家电池制造商联手，组建了一个研发固态电池的联盟。
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Recycling materials will help somewhat. Most operations already recycle batteries from consumer electronics and will scale up to deal with what will be a growing number of batteries as older evs reach the end of the road. The methods are well advanced—once the battery cells are isolated, they are ground up and materials such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and manganese can be recovered and purified.

回收材料会有所帮助。大多数工厂已经从消费电子产品中回收电池，并将扩大规模，以处理随着旧电动汽车报废而越来越多的电池。这些方法非常先进——一旦电池被分离出来，它们就会被磨碎，锂、钴、镍、锰等材料就可以被回收和纯化。

Redwood Materials, a battery recycler based in Nevada, uses some of the materials it recovers to make new cathodes and anodes. Northvolt, a Swedish battery-maker with a number of gigafactories in Europe, hopes by the end of the decade to obtain about half the materials it needs from recycled batteries.

Redwood Materials是一家总部位于内华达州的电池回收商，利用其回收的一些材料来制造新的阴极和阳极。Northvolt是一家瑞典电池制造商，在欧洲拥有多家超级工厂，希望到这个10年结束时从回收电池中获得所需材料的一半左右。

One way or another, then, solid-state Li-ion batteries are coming down the road. They look promising enough to finally allow evs to compete with vehicles using dirty, old-fashioned internal-combustion engines on range, performance and convenience. At present, standard Li-ion batteries account for some 40% of the cost of an ev. That proportion will have to fall if solid-state superbatteries are to allow electric cars to compete on price as well.

不管怎样，固态锂电池即将问世。它们看起来有希望最终让电动汽车与使用肮脏的老式内燃机的汽车在续航里程、性能、便利性方面展开竞争。目前，普通锂电池约占电动汽车成本的 40%。固态超级电池要想让电动汽车在价格上也具有竞争力，这个比例必须下降才行。