Gogoro announced recently that it has partnered with ProLogium to develop the world's first swappable solid-state battery. It is expected to be officially introduced into the market in 3 years, greatly changing the current ecology of electric scooters.
Regardless of whether it’s two-wheeled or four-wheeled, electric vehicles (EV) face the five issues of battery life, life-span, safety, cost, and performance. The holy grail of current lithium-ion battery technology is a "solid-state battery.” Global car manufacturers including Mercedes, Toyota, and GM, are developing solid-state battery technology and Gogoro is also accelerating its pace to catch up with this trend.
Gogoro announced recently that it has partnered with ProLogium to jointly develop the world's first swappable solid-state battery prototype. This new solid-state battery technology is expected to gradually enter mass production in the next 3 to 4 years.
"I am very happy to work with ProLogium, which has the world's most advanced solid-state lithium ceramic battery technology, and hope to successfully extend solid-state battery technology to the commercial segment of the electric scooter market," stated Gogoro CEO Horace Luke. The research and development technology of ProLogium has attracted Mercedes-Benz and they have jointly invested in the research and development of solid-state battery cells for EVs and strive to promote the electrification of global transportation. It is an honor for Gogoro to be the first electric scooter brand in the world to develop a solid-state smart battery prototype.
As the name suggests, solid-state batteries replace the electrolyte in lithium-ion batteries with solid-state materials which can improve conduction efficiency and reduce the risk of fire if the battery is struck, squeezed, or punctured. More importantly, through a new process, several steps in battery manufacturing are reduced, such as coating drying, multiple coatings, and other procedures, which greatly reduces cost.
Gogoro estimates that the capacity of Gogoro's solid-state smart batteries will increase 1.4 to 1.5 times in the future and the power storage capacity of each smart battery is also expected to be greatly increased from 1.7 kWh to 2.5 kWh, effectively extending battery life and travel distance for vehicle owners.
Gogoro has produced more than one million batteries since the battery swap stations were launched in 2015 and the company is currently in its third generation. If solid-state battery swap can be launched on its tenth anniversary (2025), it will definitely be the birthday party that Gogoro most wants to see.
However, the technology of solid-state batteries is extremely difficult. Analysts have previously estimated that it will not become mainstream until 2030. Perhaps Gogoro and ProLogium can refer to the design of semi-solid batteries and gradually achieve the results of improving performance and increasing reliability. The state of Solid-state batteries may not be so optimistic.
(Image: Gogoro)