Over the past three months, shares of QuantumScape (QS 3.60%) have powered notably higher. While the S&P 500 index is up about 13.5% as of this writing, QuantumScape stock has raced more than 125% higher. But these fantastic gains would've been even better if the market hadn't turned its back on the solid-state battery specialist, with the stock giving up about half the gains over the past three weeks.
But just because the bears are out for QuantumScape stock doesn't mean that investors should forget it completely. There's one thing, in fact, that I'm paying close attention to in the remaining months of the year.
Image source: Getty Images.
I'm focusing on B1 samples before anything else
While solid-state battery technology has been around for some time, the technological challenges with respect to manufacturing these batteries at scale have precluded companies from releasing them commercially. QuantumScape, though, has made notable progress in overcoming these hurdles.
During its second-quarter 2025 conference call, QuantumScape announced that it had integrated the Cobra process as the baseline for separator production. With this achievement, the company claims a 25-times productivity improvement over Raptor in addition to 200 times greater output than in 2023.
The next goal on QuantumScape's 2025 to-do list is to commence higher-volume QSE-5 B1 samples now that the Cobra process is in place. If it achieves this feat, it will prove the value of the Cobra process and suggest it's another key step closer to overcoming the manufacturing challenges that have undermined peers from achieving commercial success.
Should the company struggle to produce B1 samples, that may delay its ability to achieve another goal: field testing its technology in 2026.
Is now a good time to energize your holdings with QuantumScape stock?
QuantumScape's success in adopting the Cobra process is commendable; however, a failure to produce the B1 samples could indicate a rocky path ahead. Plenty of risks remain with QuantumScape stock, so investors should only invest if they are comfortable with a more speculative investment.
