What is the future cost? A technoeconomic assessment of solid-state batteries

To realise the enhanced energy density that solid-state batteries offer by replacing the graphite anode with lithium, the thickness of the lithium metal anode must be restricted. Ideally the “anode-less” configuration would be used, where the lithium anode is formed during charging. However, since cycling is not 100% efficient, there is a need for a lithium reservoir.

A consortium of academic and industry experts – including industry partner Nissan Motors Ltd – led by scientists from the SOLBAT project at the University of Oxford, developed a technoeconomic model to determine how thick this lithium reservoir can be, how it can be made and how much it would cost to yield the efficiency targets solid-state batteries must achieve.

The results, published in Nature Energy, show that to hit the 1,000 Wh/L energy density target set by the automotive industry to enable enhanced driving range, the lithium anode reservoir thickness cannot exceed 17 µm. A thorough study by the University of Warwick of the cost and technology readiness level of all potential manufacturing techniques for an anode of this thickness concluded thermal evaporation to be the only currently feasible process for scalable production of thin lithium anode reservoirs.

Emerson and Renwick Ltd conducted trial lithium evaporation experiments, which allowed the technoeconomic assessment to forecast the production cost of lithium anodes and full solid-state batteries at gigafactory scale. They concluded that the manufacturing cost of this fast charging, high energy density next-generation battery technology is projected to be comparable to today’s lithium-ion batteries.

Image: Scanning electron microscope image showing a lithium metal anode (black) plated through a sulfide solid electrolyte (grey).

Case study published December 2025.