Steve LeVine
Marker
Published in
1 min readDec 9, 2020

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In a carefully managed release of data, QuantumScape announced that its lithium-metal battery would take a car 240,000 miles and recharge in 15 minutes. The data show the cells working comparatively well in cold temperatures.

I wrote in The Mobilist yesterday about how the San Jose-based battery company is playing down what it must do next: Scale up from a single-layer cell to 100 layers, make its separator without defects, and do so fast and continuously. But when discussing his own work, Elon Musk says scaling up is 99% of the effort. The prototype is just 1%.

QuantumScape also stopped short of assuring rightful battery skeptics: It has offered up paid expert assessments, rather than an independent, third-party evaluation, like from a Department of Energy (DOE) lab. At these major turns, we see a furtive company rather than one intent on giving outsiders confidence.

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Marker
Marker

Published in Marker

Marker was a publication from Medium about the intersection of business, economics, and culture. Currently inactive and not taking submissions.

Steve LeVine
Steve LeVine

Written by Steve LeVine

Editor at Large, Medium, covering the turbulence all around us, electric vehicles, batteries, social trends. Writing The Mobilist. Ex-Axios, Quartz, WSJ, NYT.