The solid electrolyte battery, more commonly called solid or semiconductor battery, is expected to be the Messiah in the automotive industry. Praised for its supposed qualities, until proven otherwise, it could be the technology which will definitively relegate thermal vehicles to the past.
Nissan says it is ahead of the race to integrate this revolutionary battery into production cars. Indeed, the manufacturer declared that development models would be put on the roads from 2026 and that two later, in 2028, the first production cars to be equipped with them would go on sale.
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The last will be first ?
Japanese manufacturers are taking their time on electric vehicles, and are even being blamed for falling behind. This is less the case for Nissan, a pioneer with the Nissan Leaf, which was the first production electric car when it was launched in 2010.
Since then, the company has lost ground and cannot convince with an Ariya whose prices have fallen recently. Nor is it this small quadricycle, more durable than the Citroën Ami, which will change the situation and allow Nissan to close the gap created by Tesla and BYD.
Like Toyota, Nissan is therefore counting on solid batteries to catch up with, or even overtake, its rivals. These batteries, which replace the liquid electrolyte with a solid material, indeed seem full of promise and Nissan is convinced that they will be a game-changer. In the laboratory, they are better in every way, with higher charging speeds, but also better energy density.
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The solid battery
Nissan claims that solid-state batteries have the ability to charge up to 50% faster than their lithium-ion equivalents. This is due to the fact that they suffer less from overheating during charging, which allows them to maintain high powers for longer.
This reduced overheating also solves the problem of a heavy cooling system, which is less useful. This type of battery would reduce the weight of cars, and consequently their consumption, while increasing their autonomy for the same battery capacity. Added to this is a higher energy density, which makes it possible to carry more kilowatt hours for the same battery weight and, again, to increase autonomy.
Matthew Wright, vice president of powertrain engineering at Nissan Europe, explained to our colleagues aboutAuto Express that although the manufacturing environment for these batteries must be absolutely clean, the costs associated with their production will be lower than those of current lithium-ion models. Better still, they require significantly less rare earths (cobalt, nickel, etc.), which pose environmental and ethical problems.
For when ?
But moving from the laboratory to industrialization is not easy, and even less so at a decent price initially. In the immediate future, Nissan plans to deploy its solid-state batteries from 2028 in “a vehicle produced in Japan“.
Nissan could thus introduce this battery to its next Leaf, scheduled for 2026. Unless a specific model serves as a showcase for this new battery, for example a 100% electric supercar as prefigured by the Hyper Force.
In any case, it will subsequently be gradually integrated into as many models as possible, provided that it performs as well as hoped.
In the meantime, Nissan is preparing its transition with the second generation of its e-Power powertrain, a system that uses a gasoline engine as a generator to power a battery-electric motor duo, as we saw during our test of the Nissan -Trail e-4ORCE.
