Solid-state lithium-metal battery technology company QuantumScape is expanding its strategic collaboration and licensing arrangement with Volkswagen Group's battery company PowerCo SE, originally entered into in July 2024.
The updated collaboration agreement is designed to accelerate the QSE-5 battery development pilot line in San Jose, which the partners say marks a major step forward in the industrialization of solid-state battery technology.
Under the terms, PowerCo will provide up to US$131m in new payments over the next two years upon the joint scale-up team achieving certain milestones. The first milestones have been achieved, and QS expects to begin receiving payments in 2025. These inflows are in addition to the previously announced US$130m that will be due to QS upon satisfactory technical progress and subsequent execution of the licensing agreement.
The agreement enables PowerCo to engage earlier in QSE-5 production and automation efforts, advancing the ramp-up of QS’s pilot line. This is an essential step in scaling manufacturing and executing the technology transfer required to bring QSE-5 to global markets, while also enabling higher-volume prototype cell deliveries to PowerCo. This expansion will allow PowerCo the right under the licensing agreement to produce up to an additional 5 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of QSE-5-based cells annually, including for customers outside the Volkswagen Group, and the right to license certain future QS technology.
“This expanded agreement is a clear signal of the growing strategic, technical and financial alignment between the two companies,” said Siva Sivaram, CEO and president of QS. “It reflects our shared confidence in QSE-5 as a game-changing platform for the battery industry.”
