The Electric: Will Next-Gen Batteries Break into Mass Market EVs This Decade?

Vincent Pluvinage, CEO of silicon anode developer OneD Battery Sciences, is on a rant: His fellow next-generation battery makers, he says, are overpromising a future of cheap, faster-charging, long-distance electric vehicles. Pluvinage says automakers will be reluctant to adopt these technologies after sinking billions of dollars into factories devoted to conventional lithium-ion and graphite batteries. As a result, he says, his rivals won’t achieve the high sales they predict this decade, but will be relegated to the niche premium and ultraluxury segments.

The 64-year-old Pluvinage, a Belgian entrepreneur with a doctorate in bioengineering, has personal and economic motives for his claims. His Palo Alto, Calif.-based company, which is developing a battery with General Motors, is competing for future business with the rivals he is denigrating. But he has a point: It will be expensive to switch to next-gen high-silicon anodes, which use costly materials and aren’t yet manufactured at high volume. He argues for moderation—anodes that mix a small amount of silicon with graphite, rather than the 100% silicon anodes others tout as a goal. “The second half of the decade—2024 to 2030—is the era of affordable EVs,” Pluvinage says. “Everything is about economics.”