The NIO ET7 battery will have a range of 1,000 km, but there is one problem: it costs as much as a NIO ET5

The arrival of semi-solid-state batteries will allow an increase in the range offered by electric cars. But this technology has a problem that will make it quite difficult to find one of these energy storage units in the car you choose. The first vehicles to use this battery model will arrive soon.

It will be the NIO ET7 that uses this battery, but there is a problem with it. Its price is 50,000 euros. No, that is not the price of the car, but of the battery. This high price is due to the high production cost. Although it has greater storage capacity, the technology is not yet ready for mass production of this type of battery.

Faced with this problem, the company proposes that the buyer purchase the car, but that the battery be leased. This is not new, since some brands have proposed it for their electric models, although it has ended up being discarded as an option. In the case of NIO, it is something that fits in with its battery replacement service at its swap stations.

The battery chosen to begin equipping this type of technology is a 150 kWh battery. This will allow a range of almost 1,000 kilometres, although there will be versions on the market equipped with smaller batteries, of 75 kWh and 100 kWh. For now, the price of this model is not known, nor the battery rental fee. That said, it should be remembered that although the brand’s models are sold in Europe, they have not yet arrived in Spain.

For comparison, semi-solid-state batteries have an energy density of 360 Wh/kg, while the liquid-electrolyte batteries found on the market have an energy density of 250 Wh/kg, so the difference is considerable. In the case of the former, they have a carbon and silicon anode and a nickel, cobalt and manganese cathode.