The solid-state battery (SSB) is the holy grail of the EV movement, promising to overcome the limitations of the lithium-ion battery the way that the latter overcame the restrictions of the nickel-metal hydride unit before it. Where today’s batteries struggle with weight, bulk, slow charging, cold-weather performance, and safety concerns, solid-state chemistry holds out the prospect of lighter, safer, faster, and more energy-dense storage.
Automakers and suppliers have spent billions chasing this breakthrough, yet until now, the technology has lived more in lab tests and press releases than in hardware actually sitting in an EV. The latest to join the quest is Rimac, the Porsche-co-owned Croatian company known for its electric hypercar and EV development. Unveiling its SSB at Munich’s IAA Mobility 2025, Rimac shows that SSBs can strip weight, boost power, and solve cold-weather issues to outdistance current lithium-ion batteries like a roadrunner rocketing past a coyote. Rimac’s numbers are impressive, the symbolism is even bigger, but it is all still theoretical. Still, we mustn’t overlook that Tesla’s Model S was once a theoretical exercise that promised to leapfrog electric city-cars at the time.
To give you the most up-to-date and accurate information possible, the data used to compile this article was sourced from Rimac and other authoritative sources.
Rimac’s Solid State Battery Pushes The Envelope On Power, Size, And Safety
The Battery Is 10 Percent Smaller Than Current Batteries, Weighs 20 Percent Less, And Packs 15–25 Percent More Juice
Rimac Technology has fired a salvo in the EV arms race, unveiling a next-generation SSB at IAA Mobility 2025 in Munich that promises to do what conventional lithium-ion packs have struggled with for years: deliver more power, greater safety, and better performance in extreme climates. The Croatian firm claims its breakthrough battery can shed weight, shrink in size, and outperform today’s best EV batteries on nearly every metric that matters.
For an industry obsessed with range, charging time, and fire risk, these claims are the equivalent of the mythical holy grail. Rimac claims its new battery, developed in collaboration with ProLogium and Mitsubishi Chemical Group, weighs 847 pounds, packs a power density of 1,000 watts per pound, and retains over 95 percent of its energy at -20 degrees Celsius (-7 Fahrenheit). And perhaps more important to consumers, the solid-state chemistry removes the threat of fire or explosion.
How Rimac’s New SSB Weathers Climactic Forces
Perhaps the most relevant claim for consumers in a continent with wildly swinging climactic conditions is its resilience in cold weather, an area where conventional lithium-ion packs notoriously struggle. Current EV batteries can lose up to 40 percent of their efficiency at -10 without active thermal management, with EV owners seeing a sharp drop in range and charging speeds.
Though Rimac isn’t the only company pushing SSBs, its new battery design may be revolutionary, retaining as much as 95 percent of its energy in extreme cold — a dramatic improvement that could transform how EVs perform in harsh winters and deliver consistent and reliable output year-round, without relying on elaborate heating systems to maintain function.
Rimac’s SSB Promises Improved Safety
The other main concern for EV adopters is the risk of fire and electrocution, both of which are addressed by the inherent qualities of SSBs. Lithium-ion cells use liquid electrolytes that can leak or ignite if punctured, overcharged, or exposed to extreme heat, leading to the well-documented risk of thermal runaway and vehicle fires. SSBs replace that liquid with a solid electrolyte, eliminating the possibility of leakage and drastically reducing the chance of combustion, even if the pack is damaged.
The Makeup Of The Rimac Solid State Battery
Rimac’s SSB isn’t just about chemistry—it’s about how the pack is built, packaged, and integrated into vehicles with different demands. The system uses pouch cells arranged in a cell-to-pack format, eliminating the inefficiencies of traditional module-based designs. A cathode (the electron entry point) blend of 90 percent nickel, five percent manganese, and five percent cobalt is paired with a 100 percent silicon anode (the exit point), maximizing both energy density and performance.
The pack itself is housed in a thermoplastic composite shell, balancing strength with weight reduction, and cooled through an indirect refrigerant system rather than today’s bulkier water-glycol methods. For hypercars like the Rimac Nevera, this construction means compact size, extreme power density, and safety under punishing loads. For more mainstream EVs like BMW’s i7, the same attributes promise lighter packs, more cabin or cargo space, and simplified thermal management.
More Punch In A Smaller Package Means Faster Acceleration And Better Efficiency
Rimac’s pouch-cell SSB boasts a power density of 1,000 watts per pound, outpacing today’s leading cylindrical-cell lithium-ion batteries, which average around 800 watts per pound. That means more usable power squeezed into a smaller, lighter battery, with direct benefits including:
- Greater performance
- Sustained output
- Greater efficiency
- Lighter overall weight
- Better energy recovery
- Reduced packaging space
Smaller Packaging Means Reduced Weight And Better Thermal Efficiency
Rimac’s SSB uses a thermoplastic composite shell that is lighter and more durable than the aluminum casings in today’s lithium-ion batteries. Cooling is managed through an indirect refrigerant system, replacing the water-glycol loops that dominate current EV battery designs. This leaner approach not only reduces overall weight by reducing complex and bulky safety layers, but also improves thermal efficiency, keeping cells stable under high load without bulky plumbing.
SSBs Offer A Smaller Is Better Approach To EV Design
Rimac’s SSB uses pouch cells arranged in a cell-to-pack configuration, eliminating modules and maximizing usable space. The streamlined architecture allows the battery to deliver more energy in reduced volume, allowing EV-makers to fit slimmer, lighter batteries in a wide range of vehicle sizes. For mainstream EVs, the design could offer more range with similarly sized batteries, or larger cabins paired with smaller batteries.
Rimac’s SSB Development Has Broader Market Implications Than Just Hypercars
The introduction of its next-generation solid-state battery highlights a strategic shift for Rimac, from being known solely as a hypercar builder to positioning itself as a broader technology developer. While Rimac made its name producing the record-breaking electric supercar Nevera, the SSB project signals that the company intends to supply innovations that could redefine the wider industry.
Much like Tesla leveraged its Model S sport sedan to prove EVs were more than just city runabouts, and could rival and surpass ICE vehicles, Rimac is using its SSB project to showcase smaller, lighter, and safer batteries with superior cold-weather resilience, and would benefit mainstream EVs, not just power-hungry hypercars.
Rimac’s SSB Might Ramp Up Development From Other Companies
The race to commercialize solid-state batteries has many entrants in the starting blocks, including several automakers and many technology companies. Battery technology company Solid Power is working with Ford and BMW, with the latter already road-testing large-format SSBs in a BMW i7, making the transition from lab samples toward vehicle integration. BMW’s chief rival, Mercedes-Benz, has also been road testing (and track testing) Factorial Energy’s lithium-metal solid-state batteries.
Most experts agree we’re looking at no sooner than 2030, though Toyota continues to push its long-promised SSB program (which claims big gains in energy density) toward limited production for 2027–28, as does Nissan. And Ford and Stellantis (in collaboration with Solid Power and Factorial Energy, respectively) keep innovating batteries and scaling up production. The result is parallel development tracks (different chemistries, format, and scale) that increase the chance that SSBs reach customers sooner.
The Feasibility And Expectations Of SSBs, And When We May Have Them
Despite the rapid advancements on many paths, SSBs remain more potential than product, with Rimac’s latest news still illustrating that reality. While the company’s specs are noteworthy, bordering on exemplary, there is still no timeline for the battery to be fitted into a production EV. And arguably, the rest of the industry is actually further along: Toyota has shared a target date, BMW and Mercedes are physically road-testing prototype batteries, and Ford continues to ramp up development and scale.
Rimac Advances Potential For Better Batteries, But Does Not Advance The SSB Timeline
Rimac’s unveiling of its solid-state battery at IAA 2025 represents more than just another concept unveiling, highlighting the potential for lighter, smaller, and safer batteries that could fundamentally alter how EVs are engineered. With its compact construction, thermoplastic housing, and claims of superior power density, the Rimac SSB offers a vision of EVs that deliver greater efficiency, longer range, and blistering performance while reducing the risks of fire or explosion.
For hypercar-maker Rimac, this isn’t just a lab experiment. It’s a technology play aimed at the global EV market, signaling the company’s intent to be more than a niche builder. By showing a credible solid-state battery design, Rimac positions itself not only as a performance innovator but also as a supplier of breakthrough technology. Whether these claims translate into production remains to be seen, but for now, Rimac has provided a glimpse of what the next EV battery might look like and brought SSBs closer to reality.
The Industry Needs A Sign To Rally Battery Revolutionaries To Arms
Solid-state batteries are nothing short of revolutionary. By eliminating liquid electrolytes and maximizing space efficiency, SSBs could transform not just high-performance cars but mass-market EVs in every segment. Automakers such as BMW, Ford, Mercedes, Stellantis, and Toyota are chasing the same dream, each promising major gains by the time 2030 rolls around.
But for all the headlines, though, Rimac’s breakthrough remains hypothetical—just technical presentations rather than production schedules—with no timeline, no charging-curve data, and no hard figures for real-world expectations. The step from drawing board to prototype is notoriously as difficult as the leap to mass production, and until SSBs can be mass-produced affordably and validated over years of use, they remain a vision of what is possible rather than what is certain.