Comment Re:Shades of Toyota FUD (Score 1) 154
Even if there were a viable, production ready, solid state battery announced today it would take years for that to translate into actual production because an entire supply line, infrastructure and factory would have to be built to manufacture the thing.
That's what Mercedes is saying. Solid state batteries are now available as small-scale production samples, not as simulators and not as one-off lab toys. They are still too expensive for truly mass production, but they can be used to actually start designing real products. Engineers can start testing the batteries for real-life performance, mechanical durability, thermal envelope, etc.
Production ramp-up is happening now, but it'll take years to scale up. It turned out that solid state batteries are complicated. Who knew?