Our Strategic Blueprint

By Siva Sivaram, President and CEO

I took on the CEO role last year because I see QuantumScape as the global leader in solid state battery technologies with an ability to revolutionize energy storage and create tremendous shareholder value in the process. We want to dramatically improve the performance of everything that uses a battery, starting with electric vehicles, and eventually including consumer electronics, stationary storage and emerging applications such as data centers, robotics, drones and aviation.

We’ve repeatedly demonstrated the ability of our solid-state ceramic separator platform to deliver an unmatched combination of energy density and power, along with industry-leading safety, fast charging and cycle life, even while eliminating the need for graphite anode material, which is dirty, expensive, and presents a supply chain risk. Compared with legacy lithium-ion technology, our battery platform represents a no-compromise solution on all aspects of battery requirements.

This is important because the demand for better batteries is enormous and growing dramatically every year. It’s projected that, by 2040, there will be more than a terawatt-hour per year of solid-state batteries in production, and QuantumScape will continue to be the clear technology leader in that market. A terawatt-hour is a truly enormous opportunity: That would be enough ceramic separators to cover Manhattan many times over. That’s a challenge worth pursuing.

To make this ambitious vision a reality, we need a strategic blueprint. Today I’d like to lay it out for you, to give you the big picture of what we’re working toward.

This blueprint consists of three elements:

1. Demonstrate the technology in real-world applications
2. Build a global ecosystem around this new technology platform
3. Continue innovating to unlock new applications and markets

First, we need to demonstrate our breakthrough solid-state battery platform in a real-world product. This is it: the QSE-5, the first-generation solid-state battery for electric vehicles. Getting this product into a real-world application lets us show the market-place what our technology can do.

Using this platform, customers can build cells with different shapes and sizes to meet the needs of their applications. As a technology developer and solution provider, we work with our licensing partners and customers to help them integrate our technology platform into their application, whether it’s a car or a humanoid robot.

Second, we need to build a global ecosystem of partners around our technology platform. Every breakthrough technology relies on teamwork to change the world – whether it’s smartphones or artificial intelligence, technology revolutions can only happen when companies around the world see the opportunity and work together to make it a reality. We need to build a global network of equipment vendors, materials suppliers, contract manufacturers, auto OEMS and others.

Every member of this ecosystem has an important role to play. Supply chain partners can scale up production of critical materials to the levels necessary to satisfy global demand. Contract manufacturers can bring large balance sheets and operational excellence to make high-quality, low-cost products for many different applications. Automakers and other systems integrators can design and market compelling products to their end customers, whether they’re buying a new electric vehicle or building an AI datacenter.

By growing this ecosystem, our technology can benefit from network effects: the bigger the ecosystem, the stronger the advantages of scale and specialization, and the more value that can be created.

The third part of the blueprint is the role we play in this growing ecosystem. We will continue to drive successive generations of innovation to increase the value of our technology platform. It’s what we do best: our team at QS is the global leader in solid-state battery technology. Our facilities are state of the art and we continue to hire and train the best minds in the industry. To continue to add value and allow our technology to enter new markets and win new customers, this team will keep innovating as we deliver on our long-term development roadmap.

As we push the envelope on battery performance, we see a clear path to even higher energy densities, faster charging, longer life, lower cost, and better safety. With breakthrough innovations improving the core platform, we will work with our licensees and partners to bring those innovations into the next generation of QS batteries in applications all across the globe.

These future innovations will make our technology platform even more compelling, which will open up new use cases, increase adoption and leverage the expanded ecosystem, driving greater scale and lower costs. This virtuous cycle of innovation is how we create outsized value and achieve a truly global impact.

Let’s take a step back and look at the big picture. This is a critical moment for energy storage. Global competition has left companies and countries exposed to supply chain vulnerabilities, and there can be no doubt that the electric vehicle revolution is being held back by legacy technology that can’t meet the needs of drivers. Beyond EVs, everything from drones to robots are constrained, first and foremost, by the performance of their batteries.

As we execute toward this vision, here’s what you should expect to see.

First, you’ll see demonstrations of our technology in real-world applications, in successively bigger steps, as the technology platform becomes more and more mature. Second, we’ll continue to add partners to our technology ecosystem, both publicly and behind the scenes, and as our licensing partners roll out products based on our technology platform, it will have a multiplier effect on our value creation. Third, you’ll see us continue to push the envelope on battery development and license these new innovations out to the broader ecosystem, which will allow our solutions to address new markets, attract new partners, and build a virtuous cycle of technology development and value creation.

Such a massive global opportunity can’t be captured overnight, but in the fullness of time, we believe the impact will be enormous. Our long-term vision is extremely ambitious, and I’m confident that we have the technology and the team to achieve this goal.

In our view, the demand for a superior form of energy storage is fundamentally unlimited. That means that whoever wins the race to provide the next-generation battery technology will create and capture enormous value for decades to come.

I intend for QuantumScape to win that race, and that’s my vision for the company.