Daimler and Stellantis will both make a strategic investment in the solid state battery maker Factorial Energy, the automakers said in statements, as the U.S. based battery company seeks to commercialize its battery technology.
Automakers and suppliers are already spending billions to develop solid state batteries, the next generation of technology that promises faster charging, better energy storage and improved safety.
The technology will also be key to slashing the costs of electric cars. Bloomberg NEF has said that solid-state batteries, produced at scale, can be made at 40 percent of the cost of current lithium ion batteries.
Neither the automakers nor Factorial provided any financial details of the deal.
As the transition towards greener mobility gets more traction, demand for electric vehicles is growing, more so after Daimler and five other car manufacturers committed to a pledge earlier this month to phase out fossil-fuel vehicles by 2040.
These partnerships follow Stellantis’s deal with lithium developer Vulcan Energy Resources and Daimler’s investment in EV charging venture Ionity’s latest funding round.
“With our new partners we can develop batteries that not only enable safer and longer driving range vehicles, but that are also compatible with conventional lithium ion battery manufacturing environments,” Factorial Energy CEO Siyu Huang said.
Hyundai and Kia have also signed a partnership with Factorial Energy which Forbes reported on earlier.
Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz has also taken a 33 percent stake in battery cell manufacturer Automotive Cells Company (ACC), becoming an equal shareholder alongside the project’s original founders Stellantis and TotalEnergies.