The World of Solid-State: A Comprehensive Guide to Global Industry Leaders 2024

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QuantumScape, SolidPower and Prologium. Well-known companies, some of which have been working on solid-state batteries for decades. But the market is much bigger than that. This article shows which other companies there are and which regions are at the forefront of development.

By now, most people in the battery community and beyond will have heard of solid-state batteries. For more than 10 years now, car manufacturers have been promising that this new technology will make range problems in electric cars a thing of the past. Accordingly, the automotive industry is also strongly promoting development and there are numerous development partnerships with solid-state companies.

The solid-state companies are distributed globally. While China is absolutely dominant on the global market for conventional lithium-ion batteries, this dominance does not (yet) exist for solid-state batteries. Instead, the market is spread across the hotspots of North America, Europe and East Asia:

Illustration 1: Overview of the distribution of the global market for solid-state batteries in 2024, own illustration

North America

Number Company Country Electrolyte Energy density
1
Factorial
USA
Polymer ("FEST")
400 Wh/kg
2
Hydro Quebec
Canada
Polymer
-
3
Ionic materials
USA
Polymer
-
4
Ionic Storage Systems
USA
Oxide
300 Wh/kg
5
Nuvvon
USA
Polymer
>350 Wh/kg
6
Quantum Scape
USA
Oxide
-
7
Sakuu
USA
Polymer, Ceramic
260 Wh/kg
8
SES
USA
Polymer
417 Wh/kg
9
Solidion
USA
Polymer-inorganic composite
400-550 Wh/kg (Li-Metal)
10
Solid Power
USA
Sulfide
390 Wh/kg (Silicon|NMC)

The companies in North America are predominantly (former) start-ups and were largely founded in the early 2010s. The start-up character is both a blessing and a curse: on the one hand, they cannot draw on the extensive experience of established battery manufacturers, while on the other hand, their sole focus on solid-state batteries has enabled them to delve much deeper into the subject matter than other battery companies, which have tended to treat research into the technology as a hobby side project. Quantum Scape in particular is now worth several billion dollars on the stock market and has the necessary capital to drive forward the development of solid-state batteries.

Europe

Number Company Country Electrolyte Energy density
1
Basquevolt
Spain
-
450 Wh/kg
2
BlueSolutions
France
Polymer PEO
450 Wh/kg
3
ilika
Great Britain
Oxide based LLZO
-
4
LionVolt
Netherlands
Oxide
450 Wh/kg
5
Schaeffler
Germany
-
-

The market for solid-state companies in Europe is significantly smaller than the American market. There is one solid-state company, ilika, which is selling its first batteries, but these are small and not intended for use as traction batteries in cars. BlueSolutions is different: this French-Canadian company has already equipped Daimler’s 2021 electric buses with batteries – however, it uses polymers as electrolytes for its batteries, which generally only work at high temperatures, so the batteries have to be preheated. This has so far prevented this technology from being adapted to the automotive market.

Overall, companies in Europe are finding it difficult to scale up their own development.  In the end, even the strong research landscape and the support companies receive from the European Union (funding projects such as ASTRABAT, SOLIDIFY, HELENA) do little to change this. 

Middle East

Number Company Country Electrolyte Energy density
1
Store-dot
Israel
Orangic/Anorganic mix
400 Wh/kg

Store-dot in Israel is the only company in the Middle East that develops solid-state batteries. The company focuses on silicon anodes with an electrolyte that contains organic and inorganic elements, although the exact composition has not yet been published. However, with over 200 million dollars in acquired capital and cooperations with Daimler, Volvo and Polestar, it is one of the larger companies in the industry. 

Asia

Number Company Country Electrolyte Energy density
1
3dom
Japan
-
-
2
BYD
China
-
-
3
CALB
China
-
-
4
CATL
China
Sulfide
-
5
EVE
China
-
350 Wh/kg
6
Farasis
China
-
330 Wh/kg
7
Foxconn
Taiwan
-
-
8
GAC Group
China
-
400 Wh/kg
9
Gangfeng Lithium
China
Oxide and Sulfide
240 Wh/kg
10
Gotion High Tech
China
-
400 Wh/kg
11
GS Yuasa
Japan
Sulfide
-
12
Honda
Japan
-
-
13
LG ES
South Korea
Polymer and Sulfide
-
14
Nissan
Japan
-
700 Wh/kg
15
Panasonic
Japan
Sulfide
-
16
ProLogium
Taiwan
Oxide
295-330 Wh/kg
17
Quingtao Energy
China
Oxide
368 Wh/kg
18
Samsung SDI
South Korea
Sulfide
-
19
SK Innovation
South Korea
Oxide (LLZO)
-
20
SVOLT
China
Sulfide
350 Wh/kg
21
Tailan
China
Oxide
400 Wh/kg
22
Toyota
Japan
Sulfide
-
23
WeLion NewEnergy
China
Polymer
360 Wh/kg

The Chinese market is dominated by established battery manufacturers: CATL, SVOLT or Gotion are all companies with multi-billion valuations and can look back on several decades of experience in the field of cell production. However, little is known about the solid-state batteries of the major cell manufacturers in particular – due to their dominance of the market, the companies can afford to publish little or no information about their developments. CATL has announced a “Condensed Battery” with 500 Wh/kg in 2023. However, it is still completely unclear whether this is actually a solid-state battery, as has been widely speculated, or whether a different technology will be used.

At the beginning of 2024, several large Chinese companies including CATL, CALB, EVE, SVOLT Gotion and FinDreams (a subsidiary of BYD) also joined forces to advance the commercialization of solid-state batteries. However, there is no evidence that this consortium already has cells that are close to series production and it remains to be seen how this collaboration will develop.

In South Korea and Japan, the major technology groups Samsung, LG ES and Panasonic as well as car manufacturers Honda, Nissan and Toyota are working on solid-state batteries. In this case too, there are comparatively few details on materials and energy density.

Special Solid-State Batteries

Number Company Country Electrolyte Energy density
1
FDK (Fujitsu)
Japan
Oxide
19 Wh/kg
2
Hitachi Zosen Corp.
Japan
-
21 Wh/kg
3
Maxell
Japan
Sulfide
21 Wh/kg
4
Murata
Japan
Oxide
-
5
NGK Insulators
Japan
-
-
6
ST Microelectronics
Swisse
Polymer
14 Wh/kg
7
TDK
Japan
Oxide
-

Solid-state batteries are no longer a new development, but have long since arrived on the mass market – albeit in a different way than many people realize: Small-format solid-state batteries as SMD components and miniature cells have been around for years and there are many manufacturers, particularly in Japan. The cells are used for healthcare technologies or for IoT and Industry 4.0. They are said to be safer and more durable and there is no liquid electrolyte that can leak.  Compared to solid-state batteries for the automotive sector, however, they suffer from an extremely low energy density. It is also generally not possible to scale up the technology because the materials can only be produced on a very small scale for process-related reasons.