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Bill Gates Is Betting On Solid-State Batteries With QuantumScape

And he says that Electric Transport Trucks will never work.
He's enamoured with Small Nuclear Reactors and never considers what to do with the waste which No Country has dealt with properly yet either.
Some of his other dubious commentaries should be a cause for concern as well because of the inconsistency between them.
 
Bill Gates is a billionaire businessman with a large self promoting ego. Like most wealthy ego maniacs Gates likes to portray himself as a selfless being trying to save and better the globe.

As they get closer to the consumer market expect more self promoting marking on how the batteries/Gates is changing and saving the world.
 
IMHO, he's a businessman retired to being a philanthropist and has certainly done more to save the world than I have. He started and donates to the Gates foundation who's mission is to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. They have many very smart people trying to figure out how to make the biggest impacts and has saved over 122 million lives [ref1, ref2]. It's divided into:

Global Health - Working to eradicate diseases like malaria
Global Development - Resolving the inequity across the world
Global Growth - Promote products and policies that break down barriers to economic development
US Division - ensuring that all students graduate from high school prepared for college and have an opportunity to earn a post secondary degree with labor-market value.
Global Policy & Advocacy Division - build strategic alliances with governments and the public and private sectors, and foster greater public awareness of urgent global issues.

Like many political figures, he is frequently misquoted. For example, @Steve_S wrote:
...And he says that Electric Transport Trucks will never work....
Where what he actually said (ref) is talking about the economics rather than the engineering:

...Even with big breakthroughs in battery technology, electric vehicles will probably never be a practical solution for things like 18-wheelers ... This is where cheap alternative [biofuels] fuels come in....

To an extent, he's right in that biofuels are lighter and have a higher energy denser than batteries and easily refueled. It is a cheaper entry solution than an electric vehicle.

The Tesla argument [ref] isn't that biofuels aren't economical replacements for diesel. It's that an electric 18 wheeler has an enormous advantage in:
  • Reliability (mechanical up-time, breaking recovers energy and break pads rarely need replacing),
  • Decreased transit time lost from poor speeds/acceleration,
  • Without gear shifting can have a simpler auto-navigation
  • Safer as issues like jack-knifing are reduced with with four computer controlled independent motors.
All of those things reduce the cost of ownership under the fuel price; their engineering is to reduce the per mile cost under that of a conventional diesel. Then they add in their truck-convoy technology and they predict their costs are half that of a diesel, even cheaper than rail.
 
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... I was hoping to call attention to solid state batteries, not Gates! ...

Sorry for my part in derailing it... just hate seeing anyone put down.

Battery Day is just a few days away... most are expecting a "million mile battery"... mainly because we're already close to it. That could mean solid-state batteries, some totally new tech from the Maxwell acquisition, or just something to do with the recent breakthrough of the electrolyte's role in dendrite formation. Hard to say, but my prediction is energy storage prices are going to drop.

The Toyota Flouride battery sounds interesting too (7x a conventional Li battery, not inflammable, 8xcycle-life, sadly cobalt anode).

Older news, but Samsung is still working on their SSB too.
 
See:

Really interesting article! I wish there was more info on how this new battery works, as the explanation in the video is quite scant.

I hope it comes to fruition - the CEO in the video gave a very positive sounding summary of how close they are to production, but I guess all such things should be taken with a grain of salt where there is so much money invested. The temptation to overstate progress must be huge!

If Bill Gates is a believer it helps their credibility for sure, but then again Bill would be wise to make investments in many companies who might come out with a viable game changing battery. An investment from Gates doesn’t necessarily mean they will be the ones to change the EV battery market.

Fascinating field to watch though!
 
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