Breakthrough 1000km range electric car being tested: Mercedes-Benz assessing solid state battery in new prototype that could challenge BYD, Chery, MG and Toyota

Mercedes-Benz EQS sedan (Image: Tom White)

Mercedes-Benz is testing the holy grail solid-state battery.

This future tech is believed to be the silver bullet to unlocking mass electric car adoption.

Solid-state batteries are smaller, lighter, more energy dense and less fire prone than current battery options.

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UK publication, Autocar, has reported the German maker has fitted the future batteries from US supplier Factorial to its latest EQS prototype and is claiming it can travel more than 1000km in the real world between charges.

Mercedes-Benz hasn’t revealed technical details of the battery yet, but said it boosts range compared to current batteries by 25 per cent.

According to the report this is just the first step towards solid-state batteries that boost range by 80 per cent compared to current lithium-ion batteries.

Mercedes-Benz EQS sedan (image: Tom White)

We won’t be seeing the batteries in production cars until at least the end of the decade, though.

Initially the high cost of developing the technology will likely mean the tech will be reserved for only high-end machines.

A senior Audi engineer told CarsGuide last year that solid state technology wasn’t likely to be feasible for ‘everyday’ cars in the foreseeable future due to the minuscule manufacturing margins of error required.

That might hold true now, but the sheer volume of carmakers investing heavily in the technology will likely lead to a breakthrough in the near future.

Japanese giants Toyota, Nissan and Honda are well advanced in their development of solid-state battery tech. All of them are targeting roughly 2027 to 2028 to fit the cells in production vehicles.

Chinese carmakers, which are currently the leader in electric car battery tech, claim to be the closest to fitting the power packs to their vehicles.

Vice President of Passenger Cars at SAIC, Yu Jingmin, said at the 2024 Chengdu motor show the company would fit solid-state batteries to its cars this year. SAIC owns MG, which means we could see the tech on Australian roads soon.

BYD, Chery and GWM have all committed to the technology and are forecasting it to be used in production vehicles very soon.

China’s advanced battery manufacturing and sheer scale of production could result in these brands having a price advantage over others and put them in pole position to dominate the next generation of electric cars.

Mercedes-Benz EQS sedan (image: Tom White)

Solid-state batteries are still all but prototypes for now, and we won’t know if they are truly possible until one arrives in a production vehicle at some point this decade, but the possible breakthrough is exciting.