At last month’s
IAA Mobility 2025 show in Munich, the
Volkswagen Group (VW) and its subsidiaries
PowerCo and
Elli showed the Group’s first test vehicle with a solid-state battery — PowerCo’s Unified Cell. It will be used for the first time in the ‘Electric Urban Car Family’ of Volkswagen, Škoda and Cupra.
Oliver Blume, Volkswagen AG’s CEO, said: “The Volkswagen Group and its brands are pushing ahead with technological progress at full speed. We have taken key technologies of e-mobility — such as battery cells, battery systems, and electric drives — into our own hands and can thus develop the best solutions for our customers.
“At the same time, we are strengthening Europe as an automotive location through regional, resilient and sustainable development and production. This ambition is highlighted by our first Group vehicle with a solid-state battery — the Electric Urban Car Family equipped with our new Unified Cell — and the construction of Elli’s first large-scale storage system in Salzgitter. Examples such as this are further milestones on our way to becoming a global technology driver in the automotive industry.”
Solid-state batteryMeanwhile, PowerCo, Ducati, and Audi (Ducati operates as an autonomous brand within the Audi AG) have equipped an all-electric motorbike with a solid-state battery from QuantumScape — a Group partner that was founded in 2010 to create a technology that enables the fast charging, long-lasting and safer batteries required to ‘power zero-emissions transportation’.
The company says the key to its technology is a patented solid ceramic electrolyte separator — the material that keeps the anode and cathode from touching and moves lithium ions from one side of the battery to the other during charge and discharge. The bike, which is based on Ducati’s all-electric V21L — albeit extensively modified — features a battery system that can be equipped with up to 980 QSE-5 cells from QuantumScape.
Thomas Schmall, Group Board member for technology, said: “The solid-state battery has the potential to become a game changer in e-mobility. Together with QuantumScape, we aim to industrialise the technology and to take the next step towards series production. With PowerCo’s Unified Cell, we have created the perfect match: it is ‘solid state ready’ and enables rapid technology transfer to the Group’s vehicles as soon as the solid-state battery is ready.”