Solid-State Batteries: Separating the Hype From Real Progress

In 2025, a modified Mercedes-Benz EQS drove more than 1,200 kilometres on a single charge, farther than Toronto to Quebec City, using battery cells from a Massachusetts startup called Factorial. By June 2026, that startup was trading on Nasdaq. Around the same time, Honda signed a deal with QuantumScape, and BYD said its first car with solid-state batteries would arrive in 2027. Solid-state batteries have been “five years away” for about fifteen years, so a bit of skepticism is healthy. But 2026 feels different in one specific way: real cells are leaving pilot lines and going into test vehicles from…