• Honda is working on solid-state batteries that will give its future EVs impressive driving ranges.
• By the end of the decade, Honda believes its electric cars will be able to drive 620 miles on a full charge.
• From 2040, the driving range is expected to increase to 776 miles.

Honda is kicking its solid-state battery efforts into high gear. The Japanese automaker claims the first electric vehicles fitted with its latest-gen packs would be capable of driving up to 620 miles on a full charge by the end of this decade. That’s roughly double the range of today’s mass-market EVs.

Besides making range anxiety a non-issue, the new solid-state batteries developed by Honda will be 50% smaller, 35% lighter and 25% cheaper to manufacture than current liquid-based lithium-ion cells. The solid electrolyte cells also promise to be much safer than what is readily available on the market today, as well as accept much higher charging speeds.

After 2040, the goals are even more ambitious. That range figure will be pushed even further to 776 miles, while the size, weight and cost will be even smaller.

The carmaker’s executives laid all of this out during a briefing late last month in Japan. The presentation came a week after Honda announced it built a pilot production facility where it will try to figure out how to make solid-state batteries sustainably and at a mass scale. Test production will begin next month.

It all sounds excellent, and it’s undeniable that progress will be made, but Honda execs didn’t hold back on significant roadblocks that still lie ahead. The biggest issue is that the prototype battery cells the automaker is experimenting with are tiny and can’t be used in any vehicle–100 times too small, in fact.

“That’s why we have created the pilot line to identify and deal with any issues in terms of size and mass production as soon as possible,” said Takeshi Ueda, chief engineer of innovative research excellence at Honda R&D. “We have to make our prototype battery 100 times bigger. We are working on how to bring them to the mass production phase.”

Other issues are related to the production process. The ceramic separators can crack and dendrites can form in the putty-like electrolyte which can lead to a short-circuit. There’s also a climate control problem–the humidity in the facility has to be low, which usually means huge equipment that needs massive amounts of energy.

But Honda seems confident it can surpass these hurdles. For pressing the electrolyte in an even and ultracompact layer, it chose a roll-pressing technique that it says achieves thin films at fast speeds. The electrolyte slurry will be made using a continuous mixing method, which is allegedly three times faster than the batch process mixing used for conventional lithium-ion cells. To keep the humidity low, Honda chose to encapsulate each production process in its own climate-controlled area, which should help keep energy costs down because there’s no need to warm or cool a vast volume of air in a single room.

“Our all-solid-state battery will be a game changer in this EV era,” said Keiji Otsu, president of Honda R&D Co.

Honda is just one of the big players trying to turn the solid-state battery dream into reality. Toyota, Nissan, Stellantis, BMW and Volkswagen all work toward the same goal, either on their own or through partnerships with third-party companies.