Episode 109: Adden Energy — The 10-Minute EV Battery
You know what would really make people want electric cars? Batteries that charge in 10 minutes.
This week on Everybody in the Pool, I talk with Will Fitzhugh, co-founder and CEO of Adden Energy — a Harvard spinout developing solid-state lithium-metal batteries that could finally make that happen.
If you’ve been following battery tech for a while, you know “solid-state” has been one of those phrases that sounds perpetually “five years away.” But Will and his team have made a breakthrough that might actually change that timeline: a self-healing separator that lets lithium-metal batteries charge faster, stay safer, and last longer — without inventing a whole new factory system.
Adden’s design is built to work on existing lithium-ion manufacturing lines. That means the same machines that produce the batteries in your phone or your EV could, in theory, produce batteries that charge as fast as filling your gas tank.
The trick is in the separator — the part of the battery that keeps the two sides from touching (and exploding). Over time, tiny cracks form, and lithium “dendrites” can grow through those cracks, shorting the battery. Adden figured out a way to make the separator repair itself whenever that happens. It’s a chemical reaction that fills the gaps and stops those runaway spikes before they cause problems.
If it works at scale, the implications go far beyond cars. We’re talking about faster, safer power for everything from delivery drones to electric planes to — yes — robots.
Fitzhugh says the batteries could be about 30 percent cheaper than current lithium-ion packs at scale because they deliver more energy for the same weight. That kind of cost improvement could move the entire EV market from early adopters to the mainstream — especially for the 40 percent of Americans who don’t have home charging.
In our conversation, Will and I also get into what the next few years might look like: pilot-scale production, test vehicles by 2027, and the possibility of commercial models on the road before the end of the decade.
If you’ve ever wondered when EVs would stop feeling like the future and start feeling normal — this episode is for you.
Listen to Episode 109 here → Episode 109
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