At some point will it be analogous to buying Duracell, Eveready or Kirkland. . . ?

By Gary S. Vasilash

Compared with GM and Ford, the other company in the “Detroit 3,” Stellantis North America, which is still simply referred to as “Chrysler” in southeastern Michigan, is behind the curve when it comes to electric vehicles.

You can buy or lease an EV from GM or Ford.

But so far, with the exception of the exceptionally limited Fiat 500e (limited as in having a range of 149 miles, which is about half of what many people are interested in when thinking about an EV), there is no mainstream EV available from Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, or Alfa Romeo.

But earlier this week it announced that NextStar Energy, a joint venture between Stellantis and LG Energy Solution, has started battery module production in its plant in Windsor, Ontario. Next year it plans to launch cell manufacturing.

And the company also announced that it will be operating a demo fleet of Dodge Charger Daytona EVs with solid-state batteries from Factorial, a battery company that it has invested $75-million in.

What is interesting about the Factorial battery is that the company claims they’re working for a range of 600+ miles from a battery that is 33% smaller and 40% lighter than a conventional lithium-ion battery.

However, that fleet won’t go into operation until 2026.

So presumably if all goes well, it would still take some time before the Factorial tech makes its way into production vehicles, which explains why there is the production at NextStar Energy: they’re going to need something sooner rather than later.

Factorial is also working with Mercede-Benz. The two companies announced last month the development of a new solid-state battery technology, about which Markus Schäfer, Chief Technology Officer and Member of the Board of Management at Mercedes-Benz Group AG, said: “The Solstice solid-state battery technology represents another landmark milestone in our partnership with Factorial, which is a cornerstone of Mercedes-Benz’s strategy and commitment to leading the charge in battery development. Solstice offers further improvements in energy density and safety features that will help us develop electric vehicles that set new standards in range, cost, and performance.”

Note the future tense of “will.” Not now. But sometime.

In the meantime Mercedes gets batteries from companies including LG Energy Solution and CATL.

Mercedes, like Stellantis, has had a joint-development arrangement with Factorial since 2021.

So at some point in the future will the situation be that multiple OEMs will have access to the same battery technology and so there will be differentiators required other than charging time and range?