What happened
Shareholders in solid-state battery company QuantumScape (QS -6.93%) haven't had much good news to start 2022, but this week, the share price got a boost. As of early Friday morning, QuantumScape shares were up about 12% from last week's closing price, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
So what
This week's rebound came after the company released data late last week showing its battery cells have the ability to complete hundreds of cycles of 15-minute fast charging. The company said that's a first for this type of battery technology, and it is a critical step on the path to commercializing QuantumScape's batteries.
Image source: QuantumScape.
Now what
The update, and the subsequent stock move, were welcome news for shareholders who had watched the stock's value drop by nearly 25% in the month of January. The good news also prompted UBS analyst Chris Snyder to make positive comments on the company and its potential stock returns, which helped push the share price higher.
Specifically, QuantumScape reported that it completed a test in which its battery cells underwent 400 consecutive 15-minute fast-charging cycles that brought them from 10% of their charge capacity to 80%. Following that test, the battery cells retained more than 80% of their initial energy. As the company noted, for perspective, an electric vehicle (EV) rated with a battery range of 400 miles would get 160,000 total miles of driving out of 400 full charging cycles.
"We believe innovations like this are crucial to narrowing the performance gap between EVs and combustion-engine based vehicles, and represent the future of the electrified transportation sector," said QuantumScape co-founder and CEO Jagdeep Singh in a statement.
Advancements of this nature are key because, when "fast charging" at a rate that doesn't reduce the lifetime of the battery, today's EV lithium-ion batteries typically take about 30 minutes to recharge to those levels. If a car powered by QuantumScape halves that charging time, it will be more competitive with internal combustion vehicles. And as manufacturers increase their EV offerings, consumers will be more and more concerned with both charging times and battery life.
QuantumScape is counting on providing a leading solution that satisfies consumers' desires for rapidly rechargeable EVs. It still has a long way to go before its batteries are ready for full commercialization, but it seems to be heading in the right direction. For investors, it should be clear that this is a speculative stock, and it's likely to remain highly volatile. But this week provided some news of progress, and the stock reacted accordingly.
