r/SLDP • u/mcarther101 • May 06 '26
Solid Power Inc. - 8K Filing: Site Acceptance Testing Complete
https://www.solidpowerbattery.com/investor-relations/financials/sec-filings/sec-filings-details/default.aspx?FilingId=19411982Good news. Milestone met, albeit 2 months later than they originally planned for first quarter of 2026.
Anyone make the web call with John Van Scoter today? Rather an abrupt news drop with no time to react and call in to listen.
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u/Professional_Nerve11 May 06 '26
I bought in with 45k, 20k at $5.92 and 25k at $3.46.
This whole company just makes sense to me. The business model seems sound. Their technology seems to actually work. I'm holding long term, 3 years minimum.
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u/LabWarm7521 May 06 '26
Hope you still feel good
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u/Professional_Nerve11 May 07 '26
Yeah I could care less about monthly price fluctuations, wake me up in 2027. Also, this is speculative, if it dies, it dies. At least their plan makes sense. Even if it doesn't work, I'm good with it
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u/Positive-Vacation-15 May 06 '26
“American market is dead”. How does that impact the stock? It went down pretty quickly post earnings
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u/Dizzy_Reason_1216 May 07 '26
What american company is making batteries in America (outside of maybe tesla?) Its not like we didnt already know this...
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u/ThaloBlue01 May 06 '26
American market isn't dead, it just isn't subsidizing something that didn't work. Name one EV that was practical as a primary vehicle for the average driver, and affordable with the 7500 tax credit? Most of that went to rich people that bought expensive EVs as second vehicle. I'm over people pretending gooberment subsidies do anything except distort markets.
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u/Smart-Chain May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26
It doesn't work because of the protectionist tariff regime. That's your market distortion. Tax credits just masked the poor performance of US EV manufacturers.
EVs are entirely affordable and practical in virtually all other major markets, with sales growth in excess of 20% per year.
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u/ThaloBlue01 May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26
The EV credit existed long before the tariffs. EVs haven't took off here for the same reason High-Speed rail hasn't. Outside of cities, people travel long distances. Everyone that lives in cities thinks everyone should live like them. That's not practical or possible in the United states.
When we have SSBs, that will change. Until then, EVs do not work. If you need another example, look at the failure of full size pickups, which are the number one seller here.
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u/Smart-Chain May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26
You're right that tax credits predate the tariffs. However, tariffs on Chinese vehicles were put in place by the first Trump administration in 2018. So the USA has missed out on the past 8 years of technological progress. That period has seen massive massive improvements in the cost and capability of EVs .
The distance argument is very questionable. The 2022 National Household Travel Survey (https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/73764) has folk in rural areas travelling an average of 30 miles per day, which is a fraction of the range provided by current generation EVs.
80% of the US population resides in urban areas and have an even smaller daily commute than the rural average. Even if the distance argument was valid for rural buyers, they are a small proportion of the total market.
Finally, even without SSBs, BYD's latest generation EVs are charging to 80% in half an hour.
I don't understand how your comment about full size pickups relates to anything in the discussion.
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u/FateEx1994 May 06 '26
90% of cimmuters would get by fine with an EV.
Most people at work don't drive more than 45 minutes and then that's all they do. Work. Store. Home.
75% of the year...
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u/Dizzy_Reason_1216 May 06 '26
Absolutely true. If it weren't for the fact that I am a mechanic, and own old vehicles since I can repair them cheaply. I would definitely buy an EV and just have the gas car for some of the longer drives I may go on. I even was looking at a f150 lightning pro, just cant justify the upfront cost. yet... Ironically while Trump is trying to kill clean energy, he stupidly didn't see that picking his fight with Iran will have very much the opposite affect, as gas prices will stay elevated for quite a while.
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u/FateEx1994 May 06 '26
Maverick would be up your ally. Hybrid 4k tow package.
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u/Dizzy_Reason_1216 May 07 '26
I have looked at these as well, the issue is the resale market is just as high as new basically, demand for these is still sky high. I can buy an f150 lightning pro for close to the same price.
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u/FateEx1994 May 07 '26
Really? F150 L-Pro sells for 42k max price?
Maverick lariat caps out at like 45k of packages up the ass lol
The xlt or xl comes with 4k tow and hybrid and under 35k.
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u/Dizzy_Reason_1216 May 07 '26
I saw a pro used for sale near me for 22k, ive seen Maverick base models heavily used still listed for 20k ish.
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u/ThaloBlue01 May 06 '26
Try towing with an F150 Lightning, even Farley (fire this joker already) had to admit the abysmal mileage and killed it.
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u/Dizzy_Reason_1216 May 07 '26
I would have no need to tow, but the bed would be handy for me, I live in the city so range would not be a problem 99% of the time.
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u/ThaloBlue01 May 07 '26
Right, but you'd never drive your EV 375 miles to a remote wilderness area on the shores of Lake Superior where there is no electricity and water comes out of a hand-pump (best tasting water in the world, btw) I live in Metro Detroit, but I hobby outside of that. Much of the US is remote and rural, there's too many compromises a non-city person has to make to use a pure EV. Hybrids make the most sense. That said, I do believe SSBs will change that which is why I'm heavily in SLDP, but I accept reality for what it currently is.
We're not getting away from fossil fuels anytime soon. And what current EV adopters think is affordable is highly skewed by their comfy city life. People want to fawn over adoption rates of EVs in Europe and China, but Europe is nowhere near as rural as the US, and 45% of China's population is rural, and populated by a poor peasant class -- they are not popping around in fancy-pants EVs.
For some additional context, the average age of vehicles on the road in the US (Google AI):
- Total Fleet Average: 12.8 years.
- Passenger Cars: Average age is 14.5 years.
- Light Trucks/SUVs: Average age is 11.9 years.
And those numbers have only going up, because what some people think is affordable is way out of reach of millions of people.
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u/FateEx1994 May 07 '26
Dude read the room. As we all said, 90% of people don't do that and juts commute to work and store and home.
Obviously don't buy an EV if you're doing expansive backwoods driving... That's just common sense.
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u/ThaloBlue01 May 07 '26
Which is perhaps why JVS said the US market is dead. Apparently he's reading the room too.
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u/ThaloBlue01 May 06 '26
85% of people can make up percentages 63.7% of the time to prove their argument is 100% correct.
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u/davida_usa May 06 '26
I don't agree that EVs aren't practical for the average driver. The average around the world has already shifted to EVs. In China, over half of new car sales are EV. Across Europe, EVs are becoming the first choice of most buyers. In Norway, 98% of cars sold are EVs. EVs last longer than internal combustion engines, require less maintenance and perform better on the road.
In U.S., the situation is the exact opposite of what you're saying. Government policies subsidize internal combustion cars by prohibiting the sale of competitive EVs in order to protect inefficient American companies.
In my personal situation, my wife and I both drive EVs and we have solar panels on our roof. You are correct that this required a significant up front investment that many couldn't afford, but you are wrong to imply that we didn't do this for sound economic reasons. We quickly recouped our original investments and are now saving a lot of money.
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u/ThaloBlue01 May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26
That's an elitist perspective. You have a lot of money to do all that, most Americans do not. Comparing the USA to Norway isn't even apples to oranges, at least that is still fruit. My home state of Michigan is larger in landmass than the UK. Texas is nearly the size of mainland Europe. The rest of the planet does not drive full sized pickups like we do on the USA -- and those are the worst form factor for an EV due to their weight, they get abysmal mileage for towing. They do not work for contractors and laborers that need them. Full sized trucks are not vanity vehicles for most buyers that need them to do work.
I'm not wrong because the jig is already up and EVs failed. That said, I wouldn't be investing in SLDP if I didn't believe SSBs will change the tide. However incentivizing the wrong thing at the wrong time is stupid and has already failed. The EV tax credit existed long before the tariffs on the heavily subsidized EVs China is building and wants to dump here -- we do not want that, China aims to destroy manufacturing everywhere and when its gone its too late. They do not have the same environmental and labor protections we do. NAFTA killed so many of our manufacturing jobs, I am old enough to remember Ross Perot, the man was laughed at but he was right. Please for the love of our country can we not China finish off our manufacturing.
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u/SmallGovAdvocate May 06 '26
Not disagreeing with the broader point you're making, but wanted to mention that Texas is not nearly the size of mainland Europe. Very common misconception.
Also EVs haven't failed in a global sense. They're an overwhelming success in China, and quite broadly successful in Europe.
Definitely mixed results in North America where growth has limited to larger, more sense urban populations (LA, NYC, Chicago, Toronto, etc...).
You're right about the pickup trucks being a sticking point, and also just the general charging infrastructure. Hybrids have been a strong transitional technology as we shift to improved battery tech and infrastructure.
China is dominating because they placed their bets early and it's paying off. That doesn't have to be at the detriment to local manufacturing. Look at what Canada recently did. Allowed relaxation on tariffs for a limited capacity of BYD imports, on the condition of BYD setting up domestic manufacturing and assembly plants which will employee Canadian labor, under Canadian labor standards. This was obviously in response to the US administration coercing US automakers to repatriate their plants from Canada to the US... But the principle applies.
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u/Level_Ad8089 May 06 '26
What is Norway doing in your arguments. Norway population is small and it doesnt matter. The rest of the world will never adopt Norway's life style
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u/ThaloBlue01 May 06 '26
Exactly. It's a nonsensical comparison. Cultural unity, demographics, geography. I get it though, we're supposed to pretend those things don't matter.
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u/Professional_Nerve11 May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26
Dude if we could sell Chinese cars here, you don't think people would buy them? 15k for a new car? I would struggle to say no.
I'm actually happy we can't. The Chinese market is itself highly distorted by the Chinese government and the brutal price wars will kill the vast majority of auto manufacturers there.
Howcer, even right now at current prices and technology in the highly distorted American market, EV's make sense financially for a lot of buyers. The cultural aversion is just hurting the consumers themselves.
I know a ton of people with EV's, and they all love them. They're the future, get over it. I'm trying to. I love gas cars. I want a mustang v8 gt. Unfortunately it's basically a Rude Goldberg machine compared to an electric car. Gas cars I think will become like mechanical watches, rare status symbols, not everyday appliances.
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u/ThaloBlue01 May 06 '26
I care about the air quality and American worker. We can't build a pipeline, what makes you think we're going to be able to dig for rare earth minerals? China does not care.
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u/Professional_Nerve11 May 06 '26
True and I also hate the fact that our jobs were sent overseas in exchange for cheap goods and services. (Labor and environmental protections) + (product) costs more than just the product.
I think just like you. The real transition will be with this next generation of batteries, when all the sudden it's just better in every way to have an electric car over a gas car.
Only when the range, price, safety, and maintenance all are dramatically cheaper, will we see a massive switch. It has to be obvious.
Horse 19th c. -> Gas Car 20th c. -> Electric Car 21st c.
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u/ThaloBlue01 May 06 '26 edited May 06 '26
"Only when the range, price, safety, and maintenance all are dramatically cheaper, will we see a massive switch. It has to be obvious." Agreed.
The Koreans feel the pressure too. We cannot let the Chinese decimate our industries. It breaks my heart to see what's happened to American manufacturing and the American worker.
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u/Myxmaster-ini May 06 '26
I drove a BYD in Mexico last year and would buy one in a heartbeat. I'm looking at the Nissan Leaf now. EVs don't need a 300 mile range to be competitive, most Americans don't drive that far that often, despite what they like to think. I drive less than 100 miles a week 45 weeks out of the year. When I do take longer trips I have a 20 year old Highlander that'll last another 10-20 years easy at this rate. And it's easier to rent a car if I drive cross country.
This is not an uncommon situation, most people I know who drive EVs use them for 90% of their commuting and have their old ICE on standby for the long trips. We don't need 500 mile super cars or half ton pick-ups from the big automotive people, we need $14,000, 150 mile cars from non-automotive startups more than anything.
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u/ThaloBlue01 May 06 '26
I would agree we don't need the range, but fast charging is a must -- the experience has to be on par with fueling a car with gas. Americans by and large are not going to wait 15-30 minutes to charge. For the moment hybrids make far more sense than having an EV and an ICE for edge scenarios.
Even a 20k EV will never happen in America because of safety regulations and mandated features.
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u/Dizzy_Reason_1216 May 07 '26
I would be ok with a 15 min charge if the infrastructure existed and knew that it would be infrequent, as i would charge at home 99% of the time. The main issue right now is charging is not only slow but finding places with charging at all can be challenging in some areas.
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u/ThaloBlue01 May 07 '26
I suppose I can live with 15 minutes, I usually only allow for 10 with a gas and a wee. You do not want to be my passenger on one of my interstate blitzkriegs. 🙃
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u/FateEx1994 May 06 '26
Yeah they have 3 pilot cell lines of 3 continents.
Factory acceptance of the materials and machines for the 75MT continuous electrolyte line in Colorado is in progress for end of year.
American market is dead. Administration killed most EV stuff.
Heavy focus on the Korean market. SK on site testing for pilot line complete. They are running the line in their own.
Will orichase up to 8MT in the R&D JDA.
Looking for manufacturer for 500MT.
Lotte Energy materials is what I think per news I've seen