Automotive
above, this is currently enabled by adding a lot of parasitic weight to protect the LIB cells; with SSB, this extra weight could be largely reduced, making the vehicle more powerful with higher range, and of course passengers will be safe thanks to inherent properties of SSB. Another feature of SSB is the ability to unlock cell designs with materials not practically used in LIB: these include the use of high performance lithium or high-silicon content anodes or high voltage cathode materials: in practice high energy density translates into longer driving range. Anode- free designs, for even lighter and energy dense SSBs, are also enabled by solid electrolytes.
When will SSB be commercialised? Unsurprisingly perhaps, the higher the solid content, the harder the challenge in terms of cell design. That is because, as stated above, liquids are really good at wetting electrodes, so SSB developers need to optimise cell architecture and use high ionic conductivity alternatives.
It is not a well-known fact that SSBs have already been commercialised for over ten years. A version of SSB which uses a polymer electrolyte that needs pre-heating before use has been deployed in buses and
Ilika Goliath state cell
shared-ownership EV schemes in France but that chemistry does not favour a passenger EV use case yet. Then, semi-solid cells, which still include a signifi cant amount of liquid electrolyte and hence marginal benefi ts vs LIB, are now available from China, showing Chinese manufacturers’ intent to go to market early and dominate the SSB market, like they did with LIB.
The rest of the world, Europe, USA, Japan
and Korea in particular, are developing variants of SSB which will provide more signifi cant improvements compared to LIBs. All players, including my company Ilika Technologies, are approximately at the same stage of development, optimizing A-samples and early, not quite fully Form, Fit and Function, prototypes that are evaluated by pack designers and OEM the world over. At the same time, these companies are
demonstrating scalability of their technologies on industry-relevant pilot equipment, showing that there is no barrier to adoption in terms of manufacturing and materials supply chain. It takes approximately seven years for a new cell technology to be integrated onto an EV platform and for that EV to be launched. This is a long road to market, albeit a very attractive one, since of course the EV market greatly dominates battery demand. Hence, all SSB developers are exploring alternative markets with shorter time to revenue. Thankfully there are several of them which also happen to value the benefi ts provided by SSBs. Non-automotive applications within mobility and transportation include e-bikes and commuter electric motorbikes for which safety is non-negotiable. Born out of confl ict, defence applications demanding safe and sovereign sources of batteries have also boomed, from soldier-worn batteries to ancillary power packs to drones. In conclusion, although the full suite of SSB features will most effectively benefi t electric vehicle pack designers, there is a very healthy pipeline of alternative applications that will pull deployment of SSBs early.
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Components in Electronics
July/August 2026 29
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