What happened
The stock of aspiring solid-state battery technology company QuantumScape (QS 1.51%) has certainly seen ups and downs. Movement in the stock today mirrored that pattern. After an early 10% jump, shares closed more than 3% lower on Thursday.
So what
Shares of the company are down more than 30% year to date after a triple-digit spike in late 2020. The company tends to trade with the electric-vehicle (EV) sector as a speculative stock hoping to revolutionize EV battery technology.
Today, QuantumScape CEO Jagdeep Singh gave an interview to Yahoo! Finance, which may have contributed to the stock's volatile trading.
QuantumScape CEO Jagdeep Singh. Image source: QuantumScape.
Now what
During today's interview, Singh reiterated some positive developments the company shared with investors last week in its earnings release. The company is working toward commercializing the solid-state battery technology that could provide EV makers with a safer, faster-charging battery that can also deliver longer ranges.
The company reported it has successfully built its first multilayer battery cell with four layers. This helps confirm the technology is feasible. Singh added that he plans to scale up the technology to have an eight to 10-layer cell by the end of this year. That would allow the company to deliver sample cells to automotive manufacturers.
Singh also said there is interest from other sectors for the technology. "Things like stationary storage for the grid, that's a really important application for batteries," Singh stated in the interview.
Successful commercial production is far from guaranteed, however. Any investment should be squarely in a speculative portion of a portfolio. And investors should expect ups and downs for both the business developments and the stock, as was seen with today's jump and drop.
