This Is The First EV With Solid-State Batteries You’ll Be Able To Buy In America

The long-promised “Holy Grail” battery technology with blazingly fast charging and ample range is coming to U.S. roads this year.

• Verge Motorcycles claims that the world’s first all-solid-state battery for production motorcycles will be available in the United States this year.

• The battery was developed by Finland’s Donut Lab and has an energy density of 400 watt hours per kilogram.

• Donut says it takes just five minutes to charge and is less likely to cause a fire.

The first car you can actually buy in the U.S. with an all-solid-state battery isn’t the electric vehicle that traditional automakers have long promised. Obviously, this is a high-end electric motorcycle from Europe.

Estonia-based Verge Motorcycles said on Friday that its TS Pro electric superbike is the world’s first electric superbike to enter production with an all-solid-state battery. No, it won’t be at the end of the century or some distant future timeline. Customer deliveries in the United States will begin in the first quarter of this year.

The bike itself looks like it came straight out of the sci-fi movie Tron. Its most striking feature is the hubless rear wheel, where the motor is integrated directly into the rim, leaving a large hole where you’d normally expect spokes and brakes.

Now Finnish startup Donut Lab, which pioneered the rear hubless motor design a few years ago, claims it has achieved an even more ambitious goal: bringing all-solid-state batteries into real-world production.

Automakers and battery companies have been working for years to make this holy grail battery technology a reality. Now, Donut Lab claims it has beaten out Toyota, QuantumScape and others by developing the first mass-produced all-solid-state battery available to manufacturers.

The batteries have an energy density of 400 watt hours per kilogram, enough to provide a range of up to 370 miles (600 kilometers) on the Verge superbike. This is much higher than the energy density of today’s typical lithium-ion batteries of 200-300 Wh/kg.

The TS Pro version equipped with a lithium-ion battery is already on sale. The new version will include a solid-state battery pack, reducing weight and improving charging performance.

“When companies working on electrification are asked when the future of solid-state batteries will become a reality, the future of solid-state batteries has been a moving target that is constantly postponed,” Marko Lehtimäki, CEO of Donut Lab, said in a press release. “Donut Lab has designed a new high-performance solid-state Donut battery that can be produced at scale and is now in actual use in Verge motorcycles that hit the road in the first quarter.”

Traditional lithium-ion batteries use liquid electrolytes to facilitate ion movement during charge and discharge cycles. Solid-state batteries replace liquid electrolytes with solid materials made from polymers, sulfides or oxides. Automakers and battery experts say the material could address range and charging anxiety while also dramatically improving performance, safety and longevity in extreme weather.

The TS Pro will initially be available in two versions, one with a standard battery and the other with a large battery. The standard battery model has a battery capacity of 20.2 kWh and a manufacturer-estimated range of approximately 217 miles. The larger battery costs about $5,000 more and has a range of 370 miles. They both look very powerful, with 737 pound-feet of torque and a 0-60 mph time of just 3.5 seconds.

However, the key characteristics of these batteries go beyond what they can offer. Donut claims the battery can be fully charged in just five minutes, roughly the time it takes to refuel a gasoline-powered car. Verge Motorcycles puts it slightly differently, saying the TS Pro can fast charge at 200 kW and be fully charged in 10 minutes. The bike also features a built-in Tesla-style NACS charging port.

In addition, Donut claims that its batteries can maintain capacity for up to 100,000 cycles, which far exceeds the current cycle limits of lithium-ion batteries. Because the batteries don’t use flammable liquid electrolytes, the company says they’re less susceptible to thermal runaway or metal dendrites, which are tiny internal spikes that can damage cells and cause failure. In other words, the common root causes of battery fires are designed outside the system, at least in theory.

However, all that range, power, safety and charging performance doesn’t come cheap. Pricing in the U.S. starts at $29,900 for the base TS Pro, while the big-battery version starts at $34,900, not including destination and other charges.

This could be a huge step forward for solid-state battery technology, although for now it only comes with two wheels, is wrapped in carbon fiber, and priced accordingly.

Any tips? Contact the author: suvrat.kothari@insideevs.com