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IrelandSwiss battery developer targets winter charging without new factories
A Nano report examines High Performance Battery's solid-state approach alongside a German startup's plan to control battery cells individually.
GermanyStory of Why this story? One of ZDFheute Nachrichten's most watched videos since yesterday, with 170,277 views.
ZDFheute Nachrichten: The news division of ZDF, a German public broadcaster. 1.9M subscribers and 2.1B views.
Super-Batterie: Wie Start-Ups aus Deutschland und der Schweiz China Konkurrenz machen | 3sat Nano
Things we can learn from the video
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- 0:54Pulsetrain controls cells individually so a failed cell need not stop the whole battery system.
- 3:06Adelhelm sees longer battery life as a way to ease recycling pressures.
- 3:40Pulsetrain targets series production in 2030 and plans to reduce its electronics to a few chips.
- 4:48HPB's process forms the solid electrolyte chemically inside the cell, aiming to use existing manufacturing lines.
- 5:10Heinz describes nonflammable materials and operation from minus 30 degrees Celsius to above 40 degrees.
- 7:00Adelhelm identifies compatibility with existing factories as an advantage of HPB's approach.
Charging an electric car in deep winter is the problem Swiss developer High Performance Battery says its solid-state technology can solve. Its other promise concerns the factory floor: a different kind of battery that could be made using existing production lines.
Germany's ZDFheute Nachrichten, the news channel of public broadcaster Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen, examines that approach in a report from science magazine Nano. The report says China accounts for almost three-quarters of the global battery market, setting the scale of the industrial challenge facing European developers.
High Performance Battery's approach changes the electrolyte, the material through which ions move inside a battery. Solid-state batteries use a solid electrolyte rather than the liquid or gel found in conventional cells.
In the company's proposed "drop-in" process, the solid electrolyte forms chemically inside the cell. Chief executive Sebastian Heinz explains that the solvent used during production becomes part of the finished solid structure. He describes the material as nonflammable and says the cells can charge and discharge at temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius. These are the company's claims for its technology, not evidence that it is already available in production cars.
The other startup, Munich-based Pulsetrain, concentrates on electronics rather than new battery chemistry. Chief executive Niklas Lehnert compares conventional cell connections to a string of lights: a weak or failed element can affect the whole system. Pulsetrain's multilevel control addresses cells individually, allowing the system to continue operating when a cell fails.
Battery researcher Philipp Adelhelm of Humboldt University in Berlin sees promise in extending battery life and reducing recycling pressures. Pulsetrain is targeting series production in 2030 and wants to shrink its control electronics to a few chips.
The upload is titled "Super-Batterie: Wie Start-Ups aus Deutschland und der Schweiz China Konkurrenz machen | 3sat Nano", meaning "Super battery: How start-ups from Germany and Switzerland are competing with China". Its most concrete industrial point comes from Adelhelm: adapting technology to existing factories could make the path from laboratory development to manufacturing less demanding than building an entirely new production system.
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Where next?
- Channel
- ZDFheute Nachrichten
- Subscribers
- 1,900,000 ▲ 10,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 27,154,327
- Channel views, pace per day
- 2,751,956 (on a normal day: 2,675,086)
- Video published
- November 7, 2026
- Video views so far
- 170,277 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 213,889
The numbers
The battery report drew about 170,000 views since yesterday, placing it among Germany's most-watched new news uploads.
💡 Test your knowledge
Which battery component is solid in the solid-state technology described here?
Solid-state batteries use a solid electrolyte to conduct ions instead of a liquid or gel electrolyte.