This Dodge Charger EV Prototype Packs An Experimental Semi-Solid-State Battery

• A Dodge Charger Daytona EV equipped with semi-solid-state cells is now undergoing real-world tests.
• The program is part of Stellantis' collaboration with battery startup Factorial.
• The automaker said the battery could make EVs go further, charge faster, and cost less.

Stellantis, the parent company of Jeep, Ram, Dodge, and 11 other automakers, has started real-world tests of semi-solid-state batteries, the automaker announced Thursday.

Solid-state batteries have proven notoriously difficult to develop and scale. That hasn't stopped a growing list of automakers from betting on them, even as conventional lithium-ion technology continues to improve and benefits from deeply established supply chains.

The company has outfitted a Dodge Daytona Charger EV with a semi-solid-state battery pack from Massachusetts-based startup Factorial Energy and is now putting it through real-world tests. Stellantis says the development vehicle will be used to fine-tune and validate the pack's safety, performance, and reliability under actual charging and driving conditions.

Photo by: Stellantis

“This milestone shows we are bringing solid-state batteries closer to our customers with the potential for longer range, faster charging, and lower costs,” Ned Curic, the automaker’s chief engineering and technology officer, said in a statement. 

At the heart of this test program is Factorial's FEST cell with a semi-solid-state chemistry boasting an energy density of 375 watt hours per kilogram. For context, conventional lithium-ion batteries typically land in the 200-300 Wh/kg range. Stellantis says the pack can charge from 15-90% in just 18 minutes and operate across a temperature range of -22 degrees Fahrenheit to 113F. That's a meaningful leap over the current Daytona's lithium-ion pack, which charges from 10-80% in roughly 30 minutes.

“Real-world road testing is exactly the kind of deep full-stack collaboration that solid-state has always required,” Factorial CEO Siyu Huang said in a statement. 

Photo by: Stellantis

Stellantis says it integrated the battery into the existing pack design using a new, patented mechanical architecture engineered to extract maximum performance from the cells.

Factorial has previously told InsideEVs that its semi-solid-state cells, which use a gel-like electrolyte rather than a fully solid one, offer meaningful advantages over conventional lithium-ion batteries. Crucially, what the company learns from these cells will feed into the development of its all-solid-state Solstice battery, so the real-world tests are as crucial to Factorial as they are to the automaker.

This is also not the first time Factorial’s batteries have come out of the lab into real-world tests. Last year, Factorial’s semi-solid-state cells were also installed in a Mercedes-Benz EQS. When the automaker took this prototype EQS on a cross-country road trip in Europe, it covered a staggering 749 miles on a single charge, with 85 miles of range still remaining when the journey was over.

Last year, BMW also started testing all-solid-state cells from Colorado startup Solid Power in a prototype i7. The German automaker has also tapped Samsung SDI to help develop and validate Solid Power’s cells. Toyota has its own solid-state program in the works, and multiple Chinese automakers such as BYD, Nio, and MG Motor are working on solid-state batteries. 

Contact the author: suvrat.kothari@insideevs.com

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