QuantumScape Corporation, a leader in solid-state lithium-metal battery technology, announced that next-generation heat treatment equipment for its separator production process, Cobra, has been developed, delivered, installed and released for initial separator processing.

Achieving this milestone on schedule puts the company on track to deliver higher-volume samples of its first planned commercial product, QSE-5, in 2025, and is a major step toward the commercialization of solid-state batteries for electric vehicles.

Cobra represents a significant innovation in ceramic solid-state separator production, benefiting both scalability and cost efficiency. This milestone is the culmination of years of advanced R&D on QuantumScape’s fast separator production process—the core innovation that will allow its battery technology to be manufactured at gigawatt-hour scale. The company is targeting Cobra integration into its cell production baseline in 2025.

The company established four annual goals at the beginning of 2024, all focused on integrating the improvements demonstrated at the component level in 2023 into the QSE-5. With the achievement of this milestone, the company has now fulfilled all four of its key annual objectives for 2024:

• Prepare for Cobra production in 2025. QuantumScape has taken delivery, installed and released for initial separator processing key equipment for its advanced separator manufacturing process, Cobra.

• Begin low-volume QSE-5 prototype production. In October, QuantumScape announced it had started producing and shipping the first low-volume B samples battery cells for automotive customer testing. The QSE-5 B sample features energy density of 844 Wh/L and is able to fast charge from 10% to 80% in 12.2 minutes.

• Ramp Raptor process. Raptor, the first stage of QuantumScape’s fast separator production process, entered the company’s baseline process in the third quarter of 2024. These films are used in the low-volume QSE-5 B samples.

• Ship Alpha-2 samples. Earlier in the year, the company announced it started shipping Alpha-2 samples to customers. These cells were precursors to the B samples.