QuantumScape's stock soars as company inks new deal with Volkswagen unit

By Claudia Assis

The deal is oriented around mass producing EV battery cells based on QuantumScape's 'solid-state' battery technology

QuantumScape Corp. said Thursday it has inked a deal with Volkswagen Group's PowerCo. aimed to mass produce electric-vehicle battery cells based on QuantumScape "solid state" battery technology.

Volkswagen Group (XE:VOW3) is a QuantumScape (QS) shareholder and one of its major investors.

Shares of QuantumScape are up 40% in premarket trading Thursday.

QuantumScape said that upon "satisfactory technical progress" and undisclosed royalty payments it will grant PowerCo. the license to mass produce the battery cells.

Theirs is a non-exclusive agreement, and one that supersedes a yearslong joint venture between Volkswagen and QuantumScape to co-manufacture batteries, QuantumScape said.

"A large, dedicated scale-up team, composed of experts from both companies, will execute on the industrialization activities," QuantumScape said, without providing further details.

Mass marketed solid-state batteries are something of a quest for EV makers, on the thought that a true solid-state battery would provide nearly endless EV range, work equally well at both sides of temperature extremes and charge up much faster - and do it more safely, to boot.

QuantumScape went public in 2020 via a "blank check" company, and says that its technology is based on a proprietary solid-state ceramic separator, which enables the use of a pure lithium-metal anode.

The two companies are targeting a product "that will be scaled up for integration in a Volkswagen Group vehicle series," they said.

Volkswagen last month announced a deal with EV maker Rivian Automotive Inc. (RIVN), and said it was willing to invest up to $5 billion on their EV partnership.

Shares of QuantumScape have dropped about 22% so far this year, contrasting with gains of around 18% for the S&P 500 index SPX.

-Claudia Assis

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

07-11-24 0838ET

Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.