QuantumScape Stock Is Surging: What's Going On?

QuantumScape Corp QS shares are trading higher Thursday following a positive update on battery testing capabilities from a Volkswagen subsidiary.

What Happened: Volkswagen Group subsidiary PowerCo announced this week that it recently completed an endurance test with QuantumScape's solid-state cells, which highlighted the potential of the company's battery technology.

PowerCo said QuantumScape's solid-state cell successfully completed more than 1,000 charging cycles and "significantly exceeded the requirements in the A-sample test."

PowerCo said the data suggests the company's cell could eventually power electric vehicles capable of driving 500,000 kilometers without a loss in capabilities. The Volkswagen subsidiary noted that the cell still had 95% of its capacity at the end of the test. 

"These are very encouraging results that impressively underpin the potential of the solid-state cell. The final result of this development could be a battery cell that enables long ranges, can be charged super-quickly and practically does not age," said Frank Blome, CEO of PowerCo.

"We are convinced of the solid-state cell and are continuing to work at full speed with our partner QuantumScape towards series production."

Jagdeep Singh, founder and CEO of QuantumScape, added, "While we have more work to do to bring this technology to market, we are not aware of any other automotive-format lithium-metal battery that has shown such high discharge energy retention over a comparable cycle count under similar conditions."

QuantumScape stock is trending across various social platforms Thursday morning. Traders appear to be circling the battery test results announced earlier this week. The stock has been popular among retail investors since the company went public via SPAC in late 2020. 

QuantumScape's average volume is about 5.7 million, according to Benzinga Pro. Thursday's trading volume has already exceeded 5 million early in Thursday's session.

Two analysts have positive ratings on the stock, five have neutral ratings and three have negative ratings with an average price target of $17.79, according to Benzinga's analyst data. 

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QS Price Action: QuantumScape shares were up 18.3% at $7.71 at the time of publication, according to Benzinga Pro.

Photo: Dean Simone from Pixabay.