Bosch is debuting a new battery technology for electric cars that could be production-ready in as little as five years. "Bosch is using its knowledge and considerable financial resources to achieve a breakthrough for electromobility," said Dr. Volkmar Denner, the chairman of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH.

The acquisition of the U.S. start-up Seeo Inc. (Hayward, CA near the Silicon Valley) will help make this possible. In addition to its own development in the area of battery technology, Bosch now has crucial know-how in innovative solid-state cells for lithium batteries as well as exclusive patents.

"Solid-state cells could be a breakthrough technology," Denner said. "Disruptive start-up technology is meeting the broad systems knowledge and financial resources of a multinational company." Up to now, the declared industry target has been to double batteries' energy density and halve their costs by the end of this decade.

With the new solid-state cells, Bosch sees the potential to more than double energy density by 2020, and at the same time reduce the costs considerably further. A comparable electric car that has a driving range today of 150 kilometers would be able to travel more than 300 kilometers without recharging - and at a lower cost.

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