Shares of electric vehicle (EV) battery start-up Solid Power (SLDP -11.68%) were moving higher on Thursday after rival QuantumScape (QS -5.46%) announced a new deal with Volkswagen (VWAGY -0.53%).
As of 11 a.m. ET today, Solid Power's shares were up about 13.5% from Wednesday's closing price.
Solid Power's stock is moving on a rival's big news
Colorado-based Solid Power is working to develop better EV batteries. The company's investors include automakers Ford Motor Company (F 0.20%) and BMW (BMW 0.82%). It also has a manufacturing partnership with Korean battery maker SK Innovation, which supplies several major automakers, including Ford, with EV batteries.
Solid Power itself didn't make news on Thursday. But its stock tends to move in tandem with that of another EV battery start-up, QuantumScape. Like Solid Power, QuantumScape is working to commercialize so-called solid-state batteries, which promise to make future EVs safer, lighter, and quicker to recharge.
Volkswagen is a key investor in QuantumScape, which -- like Solid Power -- is still finalizing development of its solid-state battery design. Under the deal announced on Thursday, VW's battery company, PowerCo, now has the right to produce up to 80 gigawatt-hours of QuantumScape-designed batteries per year under license. That's enough to power about 1 million EVs.
Image source: Getty Images.
What QuantumScape's deal really means for Solid Power
For QuantumScape, the new deal is a vote of confidence from Volkswagen and an important step toward mass production, although the companies didn't share a timeline.
For Solid Power, the deal doesn't mean much by itself. But it reminded investors that solid-state battery technology is now closer to moving out of the laboratories and into EVs that consumers can buy.
