Huawei Patents Solid-State Battery That Would Let You Road Trip From Miami To Maine On A Single Charge

Toyota is currently working on solid-state batteries it says will allow it to build 900-mile EVs, but while many would call that overkill, dads across the country know it isn’t enough. We need more range if EVs are ever going to be good enough for a proper road trip, and if Huawei can deliver on its latest solid-state battery patent, we may almost be there. That’s because it offers more than 1,800 miles of range on a single charge, CarNewsChina reports. For context, that’s enough range to drive from Miami, Florida, to Bangor, Maine, without stopping. 

That said, China’s range estimates are even more generous than Europe’s, which means you may only get 1,200 or 1,300 miles out of a battery like that in the United States. Pitiful, I know. At that point, there’s basically no reason to even bring your external catheter on a road trip. Not that the U.S. would allow Chinese battery tech to be sold here in the first place or invest in catching up. Our EV tech will stay generations behind China’s, and we will like it. From the sound of it, the real value in this patent is the battery’s energy density:

The patent outlines a solid-state battery architecture with energy densities between 400 and 500 Wh/kg, potentially two to three times that of conventional lithium-ion cells. The filing also details a novel approach to improving electrochemical stability: doping sulfide electrolytes with nitrogen to address side reactions at the lithium interface, a long-standing obstacle to the commercialisation of sulfide-based batteries. Huawei’s design aims to boost safety and cycle life by mitigating degradation at this critical junction.

Allegedly, given a big enough charger, Huawei says it could charge the battery in about five minutes, too. That would require an absolutely absurd amount of power, but it isn’t like companies in China aren’t working on that, too. BYD has already shown off a Megawatt charger that’s capable of adding 250 miles of range in about five minutes. Early versions would also likely cost a small fortune, though, and it’s also hard to see how practical Megawatt charging would be in the remote areas where people might actually use it.

But while BYD does actually plan to build at least some of those Megawatt chargers, don’t be surprised if Huawei’s 1,800-mile solid-state battery ends up being more of a tech demonstration than anything else. Instead, it seems much more likely that the batteries that will ultimately make their way into production cars will be smaller and therefore lighter. A battery that’s a third the size of the 1,800-mile battery would still offer more than enough range for a road trip while also drastically reducing weight.

Considering how heavy EV batteries are — the battery in the Hummer EV weighs nearly 3,000 pounds — if there’s one thing EVs need, it’s less weight. So while Huawei’s 1,800-mile battery is still theoretical for now, it’s still cool to see battery tech advancing to the point where, in a few years, we may see long-range EVs that weigh about the same as gas-powered cars. At least in other countries outside the U.S., since Republicans have decided they’d rather just turn us into a technological backwater.