Mercedes-Benz EQS Is The First Lithium-Metal Solid-State Battery Car To Hit The Road

Although the excitement that once surrounded electric vehicles seems to have toned down a bit, electrification remains, at least for the foreseeable future, the path the automotive industry will follow. As such, expect some technological breakthroughs to be announced from time to time, as it happened this week courtesy of the Germans from Mercedes-Benz.
 

One of the ways carmakers are looking to advance the EV kin is by researching solid-state batteries. Because they use a solid electrolyte instead of liquid, batteries made like this are equipped with safer cells, but also come with improved capabilities and lower weight.
 
That’s in big part owed to the fact that solid-state batteries allow the use of new kinds of anodes. One such new kind of anode is the lithium-metal one that’s being researched by German carmaker Mercedes-Benz and battery startup Factorial.
 
The two companies have been working on a solid-state battery for a while now, having tied the knot back in 2021. Four years later, the world can witness the first results of the tie-up, cleverly disguised as an unassuming Mercedes-Benz EQS that is already out and about on public roads.
 
Mercedes put its solid-state battery through its paces on test benches last year and, as 2024 came to an end, installed the tech in a slightly modified EQS. This February, the EV was taken out of the shop and it became the “first car powered by a lithium-metal solid-state battery on the road.”
 
The exact specifications of the battery were not disclosed, but enough about it was made public for us to form a pretty decent idea of what to expect. As installed in the prototype, the battery is not only solid-state, but also features a floating cell carrier that expands when the battery charges, and contracts when it discharges.
 
The support the cells during the volume changes, Mercedes makes use of pneumatic actuators, while a series of unspecified passive battery cooling tech has been imagined for the hardware.
 
All of the above allows the battery installed in the EQS to offer up to 25 percent more range than a conventional battery of the same weight and size. In the particular prototype now being driven on German roads, that translates into a max range of up to 621 miles (999 km).
 
Mercedes plans to continue testing the battery installed on the EQS over the course of the next few months, both on the road and in the lab. The goal is to learn more about solid-state batteries and improve on the existing designs, in the hopes that some day the tech will become norm on the carmaker’s EVs. The company did not announce when we are to expect the tech to be ready for mass production.