Draft

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

☒ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021

OR

☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 FOR THE TRANSITION PERIOD FROM TO

Commission File Number 001-39345

QUANTUMSCAPE CORPORATION

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its Charter)

Delaware	85-0796578
(State or Other Jurisdiction of Incorporation or Organization)	(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.)
1730 Technology Drive San Jose, California	95110
(Address of Principal Executive Offices)	(Zip Code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (408) 452-2000

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class	Trading Symbol(s)	Name of each exchange on which registered
Class A Common Stock, par value $0.0001 per share	QS	The New York Stock Exchange

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer	☒	Accelerated filer	☐
Non-accelerated filer	☐	Smaller reporting company	☐
Emerging growth company	☐

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☒

As of June 30, 2021, the last day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, the aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the registrant, based on the closing price of the shares of common stock on The New York Stock Exchange, was approximately $7.2 billion. Shares of common stock held by each executive officer and director and by each person who owns 5% or more of the outstanding common stock have been excluded from the foregoing calculation in that such persons may be deemed affiliates. This determination of affiliate status is not necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes.

The number of shares of the registrant’s Class A Common Stock, par value $0.0001 per share outstanding was 334,388,936, and the number of shares of the registrant’s Class B Common Stock, par value $0.0001 per share outstanding was 95,449,946, as of February 18, 2022.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement relating to its annual meeting of stockholders to be held in 2022, to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the end of the fiscal year to which this Annual Report on Form 10-K relates, are incorporated herein by reference in Part III where indicated. Except with respect to information specifically incorporated by reference in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, such proxy statement is not deemed to be filed as part hereof.

Table of Contents

		Page
PART I
Item 1.	Business	2
Item 1A.	Risk Factors	16
Item 1B.	Unresolved Staff Comments	37
Item 2.	Properties	37
Item 3.	Legal Proceedings	37
Item 4.	Mine Safety Disclosures	37
PART II
Item 5.	Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities	38
Item 6.	[Reserved]	39
Item 7.	Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations	40
Item 7A.	Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk	49
Item 8.	Financial Statements and Supplementary Data	50
Item 9.	Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure	85
Item 9A.	Controls and Procedures	85
Item 9B.	Other Information	86
Item 9C.	Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections	86
PART III
Item 10.	Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance	86
Item 11.	Executive Compensation	86
Item 12.	Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters	86
Item 13.	Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence	86
Item 14.	Principal Accounting Fees and Services	86
PART IV
Item 15.	Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules	87
Item 16	Form 10-K Summary	91

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CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Unless the context otherwise requires, all references to “QuantumScape,” “we,” “us,” “our,” or the “Company” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K (this “Report”) refer to the current QuantumScape Corporation and its subsidiaries.

The Company makes forward-looking statements in this Report and in documents incorporated herein by reference. All statements, other than statements of present or historical fact included in or incorporated by reference in this Report, regarding the Company’s future financial performance, as well as the Company’s strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues, and losses, projected costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management are forward-looking statements. When used in this Report, the words “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intends,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “will,” “would” the negative of such terms and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations, assumptions, hopes, beliefs, intentions and strategies regarding future events and are based on currently available information as to the outcome and timing of future events. The Company cautions you that these forward-looking statements are subject to all of the risks and uncertainties, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the control of the Company and incident to its business.

These forward-looking statements are based on information available as of the date of this Report, and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions, and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, forward-looking statements in this Report and in any document incorporated herein by reference should not be relied upon as representing the Company’s views as of any subsequent date, and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable laws.

As a result of a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, the Company’s actual results or performance may be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include the below and those which we discuss in greater detail in the section titled “Risk Factors” in this Report:

•delays in or the inability to achieve our technology development objectives, including high volume production of battery cells at commercial size with acceptable quality, consistency, throughput and cost for successful commercialization of our technologies;

•delays in implementing or the inability to successfully implement the manufacturing processes, related automation, and technologies necessary for development efforts, volume production and successful commercialization of our technologies;

•the inability to establish supply relationships for necessary components or being required to pay higher than anticipated supply costs;

•our relationship with Volkswagen, including the ability to commercialize solid-state batteries from our joint development relationship with Volkswagen and as a potential customer;

•the failure of our batteries to perform as expected;

•delays in starting up the expected operations of our current and planned facilities, including the addition of a pre-pilot line (“QS-0”) facility in California, a 1GWh pilot-production line (“QS-1”), and subsequently the expansion to the full 21GWh target (“QS-1 Expansion”);

•the inability to attract and retain customers during the development stage or for high volume commercial production;

•the Company’s future financial and business performance, including financial projections and business metrics;

•changes in the Company’s strategy, future operations, financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects and plans;

•the Company’s ability to scale in a cost-effective manner;

•the Company’s ability to raise capital;

•developments relating to the Company’s competitors and industry;

•the outcome of any known and unknown litigation and regulatory proceedings; and any changes to regulations;

•the impact of worldwide economic, political, industry, and market conditions, including the continued effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic; and

•the effectiveness of the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting and the implementation of our new enterprise resource planning system.

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PART I

Item 1. Business.

Corporate History and Background

The original QuantumScape Corporation, now named QuantumScape Battery, Inc. (“Legacy QuantumScape”) was founded in 2010 with the mission to revolutionize energy storage to enable a sustainable future.

On November 25, 2020 (the “Closing Date”), Kensington Capital Acquisition Corp. (“Kensington”), a special purpose acquisition company, consummated the Business Combination Agreement (the “Business Combination Agreement”) dated September 2, 2020, by and among Kensington, Kensington Merger Sub Corp., a Delaware corporation and wholly owned subsidiary of Kensington (“Merger Sub”), and Legacy QuantumScape.

Pursuant to the terms of the Business Combination Agreement, a business combination between Kensington and Legacy QuantumScape was effected through the merger of Merger Sub with and into Legacy QuantumScape, with Legacy QuantumScape surviving as the surviving company and as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kensington (the “Merger” and, collectively with the other transactions described in the Business Combination Agreement, the “Business Combination”). On the Closing Date, Kensington changed its name to QuantumScape Corporation.

Overview

QuantumScape is developing next generation battery technology for electric vehicles (“EVs”) and other applications.

We are at the beginning of a forecasted once-in-a-century shift in automotive powertrains, from internal combustion engines to clean EVs. While current battery technology has demonstrated the benefits of EVs, principally in the premium passenger car market, there are fundamental limitations inhibiting widespread adoption of battery technology. As a result, we believe a new battery technology represents the most promising path to enable a mass market shift.

After 30 years of gradual improvements in conventional lithium-ion batteries we believe the market needs a step change in battery technology to make mass market EVs competitive with the fossil fuel alternative.

We have spent the last decade developing a proprietary solid-state battery technology to meet this challenge. We believe that our technology enables a new category of battery that meets the requirements for broader market adoption. The lithium-metal solid-state battery technology that we are developing is being designed to offer greater energy density, longer life, faster charging, and greater safety when compared to today’s conventional lithium-ion batteries.

Since 2012, we have developed a strong partnership with Volkswagen Group of America Investments, LLC ("VGA") and certain of its affiliates (together with VGA, “Volkswagen”). Volkswagen is one of the largest car companies in the world and intends to be a leader in EVs. Over the last nine years Volkswagen has invested a total of more than $300 million in us and has established a 50-50 joint venture with us to enable an industrial level of production of our solid-state batteries. As 50-50 partners in the joint venture with Volkswagen, we expect to share equally in the revenue and profit from the joint venture. Over the course of our relationship, Volkswagen has successfully tested multiple generations of certain of our single-layer and early generations of our multi-layer laboratory cells at industry-accepted automotive rates of power (power is the rate at which a battery can be charged and discharged). We believe no other lithium-metal battery technology has demonstrated the capability of achieving automotive rates of power with acceptable battery life.

While we expect Volkswagen will be the first to commercialize vehicles using our battery technology, over the next few years as we build our QS-0 and QS-1 facilities, we intend to work closely with other automotive original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) to make our solid-state battery cells widely available over time. As part of our joint venture agreement, we have agreed that QS-1 will be the first commercial-scale facility to manufacture our battery technology for automotive applications, but, subject to the other terms of the joint venture arrangements, we are not limited from working in parallel with other automotive OEMs or other non-automotive companies to commercialize our technology. In 2021, we announced our plans to expand our manufacturing capability with the addition of QS-0. QS-0 is intended to have a continuous flow, high automation line capable of building over 200,000 engineering cell samples per year. We secured a long-term lease in April 2021 for QS-0, which we expect to be producing cells by 2023.

Our development uses earth-abundant materials and processes suitable for high volume production. Our processes use tools which are already used at scale in the battery or ceramics industries. Outside of the separator, our battery is being designed to use many generally available materials and processes that are standard across today’s battery manufacturers. As a result, we expect to benefit from the projected industry-wide cost declines for these materials that result from process improvements and economies of scale. We believe that the manufacturing of our solid-state battery cells provides us with a structural cost advantage because our battery cells are manufactured without an anode.

There are government regulations pertaining to battery safety, transportation of batteries, use of batteries in cars, factory safety, and disposal of hazardous materials. We will ultimately have to comply with these regulations to sell our batteries into the market. The license and sale of our batteries abroad is likely to be subject to export controls in the future.

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Our investor relations website is located at https://ir.quantumscape.com, our Twitter account is located at https://twitter.com/QuantumScapeCo, our investor relations Twitter account is located at https://twitter.com/QuantumScapeIR, our Chief Executive Officer’s Twitter account is located at https://twitter.com/startupjag, our Chief Technology Officer’s Twitter account is located at https://twitter.com/ironmantimholme, our Chief Marketing Officer’s Twitter account is located at https://twitter.com/HussainAsim, and our corporate LinkedIn account is located at https://www.linkedin.com/company/quantumscape/posts/. We use our investor relations website, aforementioned Twitter accounts and LinkedIn account to post important information for investors, including news releases, analyst presentations, and supplemental financial information, and as a means of disclosing material non-public information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Accordingly, investors should monitor our investor relations website, aforementioned Twitter accounts, and LinkedIn account in addition to following press releases, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and public conference calls and webcasts. We also make available, free of charge, on our investor relations website under “Financials—SEC Filings,” our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to these reports as soon as reasonably practicable after electronically filing or furnishing those reports to the SEC.

Industry Background

Shift to EVs

We believe that evolving consumer preferences coupled with growing government incentives and regulations are driving a once-in-a-century shift to EVs.

Countries around the world are promoting EVs. The dependence on gasoline-powered internal combustion engine (“ICE”) vehicles has heightened environmental concerns, created reliance among industrialized and developing nations on large oil imports, and exposed consumers to unstable fuel prices and health concerns related to heightened emissions. Many national and regional regulatory bodies have adopted legislation to incentivize or require a shift to lower-emission and zero-emission vehicles. For example, over a dozen of countries including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, France and Norway have announced intentions to either increase applicable environmental targets or outright ban the sale of new ICE vehicles in the next two decades. In 2020, California passed regulations requiring half of trucks sold in the state to be zero-emissions by 2035 and 100% by 2045. In 2021, the United States outlined the target of 50% EV sales share by 2030 and the European Union proposed an effective ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2035. This global push to transition from ICE vehicles, aided by favorable government incentives and regulations, is accelerating the growth in lower- and zero-emission vehicle markets.

Furthermore, consumers are increasingly considering EVs for a variety of reasons including better performance, growing EV charging infrastructure, significantly lighter environmental impact, and lower maintenance and operating costs. Automakers such as Tesla, Inc. have demonstrated that premium EVs can deliver a compelling alternative to fossil fuels. As EVs become more competitive and more affordable, we believe that they will continue to take market share from ICE vehicles. We believe that this shift will occur across vehicle types and market segments. However, the inherent limitations of lithium-ion battery technology continue to impede improvements in EV competitiveness and cost.

Current Battery Technology Will Not Meet the Requirements for Broad Adoption of EVs

Despite the significant progress in the shift to EVs, the market remains dominated by ICE vehicles. According to BloombergNEF, approximately 7% of global sales of light vehicles in the first half of 2021 were electrified. For EVs to be adopted at scale across market segments batteries need to improve. In particular, we believe there are five key requirements to drive broad adoption of EVs:

•Battery capacity (energy density). EVs need to be able to drive over 300 miles on a single charge to achieve broad market adoption. The volume required for conventional lithium-ion battery technology limits the range of many EVs. Higher energy density will enable automotive OEMs to increase battery pack energy without increasing the size and weight of the vehicle’s battery pack.

•Fast charging capability. EV batteries need to be fast-charging to replicate the speed and ease with which a gasoline car can be refueled. We believe this objective is achieved with the ability to charge from 10% to 80% capacity in under 15 minutes, faster than today’s conventional batteries can deliver without materially degrading life.

•Safety (nonflammable). EV batteries need to replace as many of the flammable components in the battery as possible with non-flammable equivalents to reduce the extent of damage caused by a fire. With current batteries, many abuse conditions, including malfunctions that can result in overcharges and battery damage from accidents, can result in fires.

•Cost. Mass market adoption of EVs requires a battery that is capable of delivering long range while remaining cost competitive with a vehicle price point of around $30,000.

•Battery life. Batteries need to be usable for the life of the vehicle, typically 12 years or 150,000 miles. If the battery fades prematurely, EVs will not be an economically practical alternative.

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Since these requirements have complex interlinkages, most manufacturers of conventional lithium-ion batteries used in today’s cars are forced to make trade-offs. For example, conventional batteries can be fast-charged, but at the cost of significantly limiting their battery life.

We believe that a battery technology that can meet these requirements will enable an EV solution that is much more broadly competitive with internal combustion engines. According to the Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d’Automobiles, more than 77 million ICE vehicles were produced in 2020 across the auto industry, representing a significant untapped demand for a battery that meets these requirements.

Limitations of Conventional Lithium-ion Battery Technologies

The last significant development in battery technology was the commercialization of lithium-ion batteries in the early 1990s which created a new class of batteries with higher energy density. Lithium-ion batteries have enabled a new generation of mobile electronics, efficient renewable energy storage, and the start of the transition to electrified mobility.

Since the 1990s, conventional lithium-ion batteries have gradually improved in energy density. Most increases in energy density have come from improved cell design and incremental improvements in cathode and anode technology. However, there is no Moore’s law in batteries—it has taken conventional lithium-ion batteries at least 10 years to double in energy density and it has been approximately 30 years since the introduction of a major new chemistry. As the industry approaches the theoretical limit of achievable energy density for lithium-ion batteries, we believe a new architecture is required to deliver meaningful gains in energy density.

Batteries have a cathode (the positive electrode), an anode (the negative electrode), a separator which prevents contact between the anode and cathode, and an electrolyte which transports ions but not electrons. A conventional lithium-ion battery (as shown in the figure below) uses a liquid electrolyte, a polymer separator, and an anode made principally of carbon (graphite) or a carbon/silicon composite. Lithium ions move from the cathode to the anode when the battery is charged and vice versa during discharge.

Conventional Lithium-Ion Battery Design

 

The energy density of conventional lithium-ion batteries is fundamentally limited by the anode, which provides a host material made of carbon and/or silicon to hold the lithium ions, preventing them from binding together into pure metallic lithium. Metallic lithium, when used with conventional liquid electrolytes and porous separators, can form needle-like crystals of lithium known as dendrites, which can penetrate through the separator and short-circuit the cell.

While using a host material is an effective way to prevent dendrites, this host material adds volume and mass to the cell, adds cost to the battery, and limits the battery life due to side reactions at the interface with the liquid electrolyte. The rate at which lithium diffuses through the anode also limits the maximum cell power.

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The addition of silicon to a carbon anode provides a modest boost to energy density relative to a pure carbon anode. However, silicon is also a host material that not only suffers from the limitations of carbon as discussed above, but also introduces cycle life challenges as a result of the repeated expansion and contraction of the silicon particles, since silicon undergoes significantly more expansion than carbon when hosting lithium ions. Furthermore, the voltage of the lithium-silicon reaction subtracts from the overall cell voltage, reducing cell energy.

Lithium-Metal Anode Required to Unlock Highest Energy Density

We believe that a lithium-metal anode is the most promising approach that can break out of the constraints inherent in conventional lithium-ion batteries and enable significant improvements in energy density.

In a lithium-metal battery, the anode is made of metallic lithium; there is no host material. Eliminating the host material reduces the size and weight of the battery cell and eliminates the associated materials and manufacturing costs. This results in the highest theoretical gravimetric energy density for a lithium-based battery system. Lithium-ion batteries currently used in the auto industry have energy densities of less than 300 Wh/kg. We believe lithium-metal batteries have the potential to achieve significantly higher energy density.

Lithium-metal anodes are generally compatible with conventional cathode materials, and lithium-metal batteries will derive some benefit from continued improvement in conventional cathode materials. Moreover, lithium-metal anodes may enable future generations of higher energy cathodes, such as the metal fluorides, that may not achieve significant energy density gains when used with lithium-ion anodes, as shown in the figure below.

Modeled Cell Specific Energy

 

Source: Andre et al, J Mater Chem A, (2015) 6709

Note: Modeled cell specific energy is based on traditional cell designs and architectures.

Although the industry has understood for over 40 years the potential benefits of lithium-metal anodes, the industry has not been able to develop a separator that makes a lithium-metal anode practical for rechargeable applications.

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Solid-State Separator Required to Enable Lithium-Metal Anode

We believe that a lithium-metal battery requires that the porous separators used in current lithium-ion batteries be replaced with a solid-state separator capable of conducting lithium ions between the cathode and anode at rates comparable to conventional liquid electrolyte while also suppressing the formation of lithium dendrites, which are needle-like formations of lithium metal which can grow across the separator and short-circuit the cell. While various solid-state separators have been shown to operate at low power densities, such low power densities are not useful for most practical applications. To our best knowledge, we are the only company that has been able to demonstrate a solid-state separator for lithium-metal batteries that reliably prevents dendrite formation at higher power densities, such as those required for automotive applications and fast-charging.

We believe that our ability to develop this proprietary solid-state separator will enable the shift from lithium-ion to lithium-metal batteries.

Our Technology

 

Our proprietary solid-state lithium-metal cell represents the next-generation of battery technology.

Our battery cells have none of the host materials used in conventional anodes. In fact, when our cells are manufactured there is no anode. When the cell is first charged, lithium moves out of the cathode, diffuses through our solid-state separator and plates in a thin metallic layer directly on the anode current collector, forming an anode. When the battery cell is discharged, the lithium diffuses back into the cathode.

Eliminating the anode host material found in conventional lithium-ion cells substantially increases the volumetric energy density. A pure lithium-metal anode also enables the theoretically highest gravimetric energy density for a lithium battery system.

Our proprietary solid-state separator is the core technology breakthrough that enables reliable cycling of the lithium-metal anode battery. Without a working solid-state separator, the lithium would form dendrites which would grow through a traditional porous separator and short circuit the cell.

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An effective solid-state separator requires a solid material that is as conductive as a liquid electrolyte, chemically stable next to lithium-one of the most reactive elements-and able to prevent the formation of dendrites. Our team worked over ten years to develop a composition that meets these requirements and to develop the techniques necessary to manufacture the separator material at scale using a continuous process. We have a number of patents covering both the composition of this material and key steps of the manufacturing process.

 

Our solid-state separator is a dense, entirely inorganic ceramic. As shown in the figure above, it is made into a film that is thinner than a human hair and then cut into pieces about the length and width of a playing card. Our solid-state separator is flexible because it has a low defect density and is thin. In contrast, typical household ceramics are brittle and can break due to microscopic defects which reduce structural integrity.

The separator is placed between a cathode and anode current collector to form a single battery cell layer, as shown by the single layer pouch cell in the graphic above. Our single-layer solid-state cells have been extensively tested for power density, cycle life and temperature performance. This is the only solid-state cell we are aware of that simultaneously satisfies what we believe are the key requirements for automotive commercial usage (800 cycles while maintaining 80% energy retention, 100% depth of discharge, 1C/1C rates, <30°C temperature, <4 atm pressure) and that has been validated by independent testing.

Our testing of single-layer battery cells shows that unlike previous solid-state efforts, our solid-state separators can work at high rates of power, with the ability to charge from 10% to 80% capacity in under 15 minutes, faster than today’s conventional batteries can deliver without materially degrading life. We also presented data showing our single-layer battery cell can work at a wide range of temperatures, including results that show cycling at –10°C.

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The basic building block of our designed battery package is the bilayer cell, consisting of a double-sided cathode with a separator on either side. We stack these bilayer cells together to form multi-layer cells. Our form factor for EV batteries is targeted to be about the size of a deck of cards.

Multi-Layer Progress

 

Depending upon our potential customer’s requirements, our battery cell will require several dozen layers within each battery package. We have not yet built a complete multi-layer solid-state battery cell in the dimensions required for automotive applications but have announced the results of our single-layer, four-layer, and 10-layer cells. Those cells have reached over 800 cycles at near-room temperature (25 to 30 degrees Celsius) at 1C charge and discharge rates with energy retention maintained at more than 80%.

We need more production capacity to make the large number of multi-layer cells needed for testing and for process optimization, including yield improvement. We have ordered and continue to order new automation and high-volume tools that we expect to increase both output and repeatability; the nature of the task, and the development approach that we use, involves high velocity experimentation and a large number of samples.

Our cathodes use a combination of conventional cathode active materials such as NMC or a cobalt-free, nickel-free composition like LFP with a catholyte made of an organic polymer and organic liquid. In the future, we may use other compositions of cathode active materials. Over the years, we have developed catholytes made of differing mixtures of organic polymer and organic liquid electrolyte to optimize performance across multiple metrics such as voltage, temperature, power, and safety, among others. We continue to test solid, gel and liquid catholytes in our cells. The solid catholyte is part of our ongoing research and development investigation into inorganic catholytes. Our solid-state separator platform is being designed to enable faster charge rates for thicker cathode electrodes, which when combined with a lithium-metal anode, may further increase cell energy densities.

We believe our battery technology may provide significant improvements in energy density compared to today’s conventional lithium-ion batteries, as shown in the figure below.

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Sources: Cell densities for commercialized chemistries based on Ding, Y. et al (2019) and Yang, X. et al. (2021); QuantumScape cell densities based on management estimates

1 Lithium, iron, and phosphate 2 Nickel, manganese, and cobalt 3 Nickel, cobalt, and aluminum

Benefits of Our Technology

We believe our battery technology will enable significant benefits across battery capacity, life, safety, and fast charging while minimizing cost. We believe these benefits will provide significant value to automotive OEMs by enabling greater customer adoption of their EVs. By solving key pain-points such as 15-minute fast charging, we believe our battery technology will enable the delivery of an EV experience that is significantly more competitive with fossil fuel vehicles than what today’s EVs can achieve with conventional batteries.

Our battery technology is intended to meet the five key requirements we believe will enable mass market adoption of EVs:

•Energy density. Our battery design is intended to significantly increase volumetric and gravimetric energy density by eliminating the carbon/silicon anode host material found in conventional lithium-ion cells. This increased energy density will enable EV manufacturers to increase range without increasing the size and weight of the battery pack, or to reduce the size and weight of the battery pack which will reduce the cost of the battery pack and other parts of the vehicle. For example, we estimate that our solid-state battery cells will enable a car maker to increase the range of a luxury performance EV—with 350 liters of available battery space—from 250 miles (400 km) to 450 miles (730 km) without increasing the size and weight of the battery pack. In the same example, we estimate our battery would enable the car maker to increase the maximum power output of such a vehicle from 420 kW to 650 kW without increasing the size and weight of the battery pack. Alternatively, we believe that our solid-state battery cells will enable a car maker to increase the range of a mass market sedan-with 160 liters of available battery space-from 123 miles (200km) to 233 miles (375km) without increasing the size and weight of the battery pack. Similarly, we believe our battery would enable the car maker to increase the maximum power output of such vehicle from 100 kW to 150 kW without increasing the size and weight of the battery pack.

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•Battery life. We designed our technology to enable increased battery life relative to conventional lithium-ion batteries. In a conventional cell, a reason that battery capacity fades over time is the gradual irreversible loss of lithium due to side reactions between the liquid electrolyte and the anode. By eliminating the anode host material, we expect to eliminate the anode side reaction and anode to enable longer battery life. Our single-layer, four-layer, and 10-layer prototype cells have been tested to over 800 cycles (under stringent test conditions, including 100% depth-of-discharge cycles at one-hour charge and discharge rates at 25 to 30 degrees Celsius and approximately 3.4 atm of pressure with approximately 3mAh/cm2 cathode loading) while still retaining over 80% of the cells’ energy. This performance exceeds the cycle life and capacity retention in many EV battery warranties today, which require that cells retain 70% of the rated capacity at 150,000 miles.

•Fast charging capability. Our battery technology, and specifically our solid-state separator material, has been tested to demonstrate the ability to charge from 10% to 80% capacity in under 15 minutes at 25 degrees Celsius, faster than today’s conventional batteries can deliver without materially degrading life. In these conventional batteries, the limiting factor for charge rate is the rate of diffusion of lithium ions into the anode. If a conventional battery is charged at high rate, especially at high state-of-charge or low temperature, lithium can start plating on carbon particles of the anode rather than diffuse into the carbon particles. This causes a reaction between the plated lithium and liquid electrolyte which reduces cell capacity and increases the risk of dendrites that can short circuit the cell. With a lithium-metal anode, using our solid-state separator, we expect the lithium can be plated as fast as the cathode can deliver it.

•Increased safety. Our solid-state battery cell uses a ceramic separator which is not combustible and is therefore safer than conventional polymer separators. This ceramic separator is also capable of withstanding temperatures considerably higher than those that would melt conventional polymer separators, providing an additional measure of safety. In high temperature tests of our solid-state separator material with lithium, the separator material remained stable in direct contact with molten lithium without releasing heat externally, even when heated up to 250 degrees Celsius, higher than the 180 degrees Celsius melting point of lithium.

•Cost. Our battery technology eliminates the anode host material and the associated manufacturing costs, providing a structural cost advantage compared to traditional lithium-ion batteries. When comparing manufacturing facilities of similar scale, we estimate that eliminating these costs has the potential to provide a cost savings compared to the costs of building traditional lithium-ion batteries.

Our Competitive Strengths

Only lithium-metal battery technology showing capability to meet automotive requirements for power, cycle life, and temperature range to our knowledge. We have built and tested over 100,000 single-layer solid-state cells and have demonstrated that our technology shows the capability to meet automotive requirements for power, cycle life, and temperature range. In 2018, Volkswagen announced it had successfully tested certain of our single-layer, laboratory battery cells at automotive rates of power. Subsequently, Volkswagen has tested certain subsequent generations of laboratory cells, including multi-layer laboratory cells. In 2021, a second top ten (by global revenues) automotive OEM evaluated our early cells, with whom we signed an agreement for them to collaborate with us to evaluate prototypes of our solid-state battery cells, and to purchase 10 MWh of capacity from QS-0 for inclusion in pre-series vehicles, subject to satisfactory validation of intermediate milestones.

Partnership with one of the world’s largest automotive OEMs. We are partnered with Volkswagen, one of the largest automakers in the world. Volkswagen has been a collaboration partner and major investor since 2012 and has invested a total of more than $300 million. In addition, Volkswagen has committed additional capital to fund the joint venture we have established with Volkswagen to enable an industrial level of production of our solid-state batteries for use in Volkswagen vehicles. As 50-50 partners in the joint venture with Volkswagen, we expect to share equally in the revenue and profit from the joint venture.

High barriers to entry and extensive patent and intellectual property portfolio. Since inception, we have generated more than 250 U.S. and foreign patents and patent applications – including broad fundamental patents around our core technology. Our proprietary solid-state separator uses the only material we know of that can cycle lithium at automotive current densities and room temperature without forming dendrites. We have a range of patents, including patents that cover:

•Composition of matter, including the optimal composition as well as wide-ranging coverage of a number of variations;

•Enabling battery technology covering compositions and methods required to incorporate a solid-state separator into a battery;

•Manufacturing technology, protecting the way to make the separator at scale without semiconductor-style vacuum production or batch processes used in traditional ceramics; and

•Material dimensions, including our proprietary solid-state separator, covering any separator with commercially practical thicknesses for a solid-state battery.

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Significant development focused on next-gen technology for automotive applications. We have spent over ten years and over $350 million developing our battery technology. We have run over 4.4 million tests on over 1.1 million cells and cell components. Our technical team comprises more than 500 employees, many of whom have worked at large battery manufacturers and automotive OEMs. Through its experience, our team has significant technical know-how and is supported by extensive facilities and equipment, development infrastructure, and data analytics.

Designed for volume production. Our battery cells are designed to use earth-abundant materials and processes suitable for high volume production. Our manufacturing process for our proprietary separator uses tools which are already used at scale in the battery or ceramics industries. While preparing for scale production, we have purchased or tested production-intent tools from the world’s leading vendors. In particular, we expect to produce our proprietary separator using scalable continuous processing. Although our separator material is proprietary, the inputs are readily available and can be sourced from multiple suppliers across geographies.

Structural cost advantage leveraging industry cost trends. Aside from the separator, our battery is being designed to use many of the materials and processes that are standard across today’s lithium-ion battery manufacturers. As a result, we expect to benefit from the projected industry-wide cost declines for these materials that result from process improvements and economies of scale. We believe that the manufacturing of our solid-state battery cells provides us with a structural cost advantage because our battery cells are manufactured without an anode.

Our Growth Strategy

Continue to develop our commercial battery technology. We will continue developing our battery technology with the goal of enabling commercial production between 2024 and 2025. We have demonstrated capabilities of our solid-state separator and battery technology in single-layer, four-layer and 10-layer solid-state cells in commercially relevant areas (ranging from 60x75mm to 70x85mm). In February 2022, we announced early cycling test results for 16-layer cells also in a commercially relevant area. We must now develop multi-layer cells with commercial dimensions and many more layers, to continue improving yield and performance and to optimize all components of the cell for high volume manufacturing. We will continue to work to further develop and validate the volume manufacturing processes to enable high volume manufacturing and minimize manufacturing costs. We will continue to work on increasing the yield of our separators to reduce scrappage and to increase utilization of manufacturing tools. Finally, we will continue to use our engineering line in San Jose, California to prepare for high volume manufacturing and plan our first commercial production, QS-1, through our joint venture partnership with Volkswagen. In addition, we expect that QS-0 will help provide the additional capacity we need for our development work and will enable us to accelerate work on the next-generation of manufacturing tools. QS-0 is also intended to provide capacity to make enough batteries for hundreds of long-range battery electric test vehicles per year. This will allow us to provide early cells to Volkswagen, as well as other automotive partners, explore non-automotive applications, and help de-risk subsequent commercial scale-up. We secured a long-term lease in April 2021 for QS-0. We expect for QS-0 to be producing cells by 2023. Our current funds are sufficient to fund QS-0 expenses and the initial setup of the QS-1 production facilities.

Meet Volkswagen battery demand. QS-1 to be built and run by our 50-50 joint venture entity with Volkswagen, QSV Operations LLC (“QSV”) and the subsequent QS-1 Expansion would represent a small fraction of Volkswagen’s demand for batteries and implies vehicle volumes under 2.5% of Volkswagen’s total production in 2021, assuming a 100KWh pack size. Our goal is to significantly expand the production capacity of the joint venture, in partnership with Volkswagen, to meet more of their projected demand.

Expand relationships with other automotive OEMs. While we expect Volkswagen will be the first to commercialize vehicles using our battery technology, over the next few years as we build QS-1, we intend to work closely with other automotive OEMs to make our solid-state battery cells widely available over time. As part of our joint venture agreement we have agreed that QS-1 will be the first commercial-scale cell production facility to manufacture our battery technology for automotive applications, but, subject to the other terms of the joint venture arrangements, we are not limited from working in parallel with other automotive OEMs to commercialize our technology, including the second top ten automotive OEM noted above. We expect that QS-0 will allow us to provide early cells to Volkswagen, as well as other automotive partners, explore non-automotive applications, and help de-risk subsequent commercial scale-up.

Expand target markets. We are currently focused on automotive EV applications, which have the most stringent set of requirements for batteries. However, we recognize that our solid-state battery technology has applicability in other large and growing markets including stationary storage and consumer electronics such as smartphones and wearables. In January 2022, we announced an agreement to work with Fluence Energy Inc. to evaluate our batteries for inclusion in their stationary energy storage applications.

Expand commercialization models. Our technology is being designed to enable a variety of business models. In addition to joint ventures, such as the one with Volkswagen, we may operate solely-owned manufacturing facilities or license technology to other manufacturers, such as our recently announced QS-0 facility that is planned for California. Where appropriate, we may build and sell separators or cell layers rather than complete battery cells.

Continued investment in next-gen battery innovation. We intend to continue to invest in research and development to improve battery cell performance, improve manufacturing processes, and reduce cost.

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Manufacturing and Supply

Our battery manufacturing process is being designed to be very similar to that of conventional lithium-ion battery manufacturing, with a few exceptions:

•We use a proprietary separator material instead of the polyolefin separator used in lithium-ion cells.

•Our architecture eliminates the need for anode manufacturing, reducing capital investment and lowering operating costs.

•We will build our multi-layer cells by sequentially stacking rather than winding cell materials together.

•Our cell design allows us to greatly shorten the weeks-long aging process required for conventional lithium-ion cells, thus decreasing manufacturing cycle time and reducing working capital needs.
 

Our architecture depends on our proprietary separator, which we will manufacture ourselves. Though our separator design is unique, its manufacturing relies on well-established, high-volume production processes currently deployed globally in other industries.

We plan to source our input materials from industry leading suppliers to the lithium-ion battery industry, and we already have strategic relationships in place with the industry’s leading vendors of cathode material, the most critical purchased input to our cell, along with leading vendors of other less critical inputs. Our separator is made from abundant materials produced at industrial scale in multiple geographies. We do not anticipate any unique supply constraints that would impede the commercialization of our product for the foreseeable future.

Relative to conventional lithium-ion cells, our technology eliminates the anode material cost (e.g. carbon/silicon host material, electrolyte in the anode) and reduces manufacturing costs (e.g. no anode related manufacturing costs, reduced formation costs). This enables savings in materials, capital equipment and manufacturing time, as illustrated in the graphic below.

 

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Partnerships

Volkswagen Collaboration

QuantumScape has had a strong collaborative relationship with Volkswagen since 2012. Our collaboration initially focused on the testing and evaluation of QuantumScape’s battery technology. Volkswagen engineers worked closely with our engineering team and oversaw the progress on our technology development efforts and battery testing. Volkswagen has made several rounds of equity investments in QuantumScape, and senior executives of Volkswagen joined our board of directors (the “Board”), including two successive heads of group research for the Volkswagen Group. During the early part of this collaboration we worked closely with members of Volkswagen’s global research and development team, and now the QuantumScape team works closely with the Volkswagen Battery Center of Excellence, which is tasked with commercializing battery technologies within Volkswagen. The Head of Volkswagen’s Battery Center of Excellence, Frank Blome, and the Head of Volkswagen Group M&A, Investment Advisory, and Partnerships, Jens Wiese, are members of the Board.

Joint Venture Relationship

In June 2018, we formed QSV, a 50-50 joint venture entity with Volkswagen focused on cell manufacturing, to facilitate the commercialization of our solid-state battery technology and enable Volkswagen to be the first automotive OEM to utilize this technology. In 2018, the parties collectively made an initial equity investment in the joint venture of approximately $3 million. Upon the occurrence of certain development milestones and subject to the entry by QuantumScape, Volkswagen and QSV into certain related agreements, QuantumScape and Volkswagen have agreed to commit additional capital on a 50-50 basis to QSV to fund the buildout of QS-1 and QS-1 Expansion cell manufacturing. As 50-50 partners in the cell manufacturing joint venture with Volkswagen, we expect to share equally in the revenue and profit from the joint venture, including from QS-1 and QS-1 Expansion. Under the joint venture agreements, QSV will purchase solid state separators from QuantumScape.

The joint venture agreements were amended in 2020 in connection with a further $200 million investment commitment by Volkswagen in QuantumScape. $100 million of this equity investment by Volkswagen was funded in December 2020 and the second $100 million equity investment was funded in April 2021. As part of this equity investment, Volkswagen has the right to designate two members to our Board, who are currently Mr. Blome and Mr. Wiese.

The joint venture agreements provide for the commercialization of our solid-state battery cells to occur in two phases. The first phase is the construction of QS-1 with an annual capacity of 1GWh. QSV will begin construction of QS-1 when certain delivery and validation milestones are met for our solid-state battery cells. The second phase is QS-1 Expansion.

We believe the joint venture structure will enable Volkswagen to benefit from early access to our solid-state battery cells, but also protect our intellectual property. For example, certain key battery technology will continue to be owned by us and will be provided to the joint venture through a limited license for purposes of QS-1. The parties will agree on the license terms for a high-volume manufacturing facility for this battery technology license. The joint venture terminates upon the earliest to occur of (i) Volkswagen exercising specified put rights in the event of, amongst others, (a) a change of control of QuantumScape, or (b) the failure by us to meet specified development milestones within certain timeframes, (ii) QuantumScape or Volkswagen exercising specified call or put rights in the event of, amongst others, if the parties cannot agree to commercial terms for QS-1 or QS-1 Expansion within certain timeframes, (iii) a certain date after commencement of production of a Volkswagen series production vehicle using our battery cells (or an alternative end date if no such production was commenced after certain technical milestones with respect to our battery cell technology were reached) and (iv) December 31, 2028.

Volkswagen committed to purchase a certain portion of the output capacity of QS-1 at a price for the solid-state battery cells that is comparable to those of lithium-ion batteries, but with a premium for the outperformance of these battery cells based on certain key technical parameters. We will sell separators to the joint venture at a price to be agreed by the parties based on the provisions of the joint venture agreements. The joint venture agreements provide the framework for the commercial relationship. At the appropriate time, the parties will negotiate agreements covering the details of these purchase commitments.

QS-1 Expansion is subject to meeting additional technical milestones and agreement on commercial terms, including pricing for the battery cells, agreement on the terms of purchase or license for the separators, and agreement on terms of the license to our battery technology for QS-1 Expansion. As 50-50 partners in the joint venture with Volkswagen, we expect to share equally in the capital contributions required for QS-1 Expansion and in the revenue and profit from QS-1 Expansion. We have agreed that the pricing for the battery cells sold by QS-1 Expansion and the separators purchased by QS-1 Expansion may be different from the pricing set for QS-1, and we will need to agree on pricing at the appropriate time. In addition, we will need to agree to the terms of the license to our battery technology for QS-1 Expansion.

Volkswagen is expected to have a significant role in the manufacturing ramp-up of QSV, and we have agreed that certain technology that is developed by QSV will be owned by the joint venture and licensed to each of QuantumScape and Volkswagen on a royalty-free basis. None of this intellectual property has been developed to date. Although the parties have not commenced operations on QS-1, Volkswagen has offered to assist us with supply chain, manufacturing ramp-up planning, and automation. In addition, we have collaborated with Volkswagen on enabling us to develop stronger relationships with battery component supply companies, such as cathode manufacturers and equipment supply companies.

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Research and Development

We conduct research and development at our headquarters facility in San Jose, California. Research and development activities concentrate on making further improvements to our battery technology, including improvements to battery performance and cost.

Our research and development currently includes programs for the following areas:

•Multi-layering. We are working to continue increasing the number of layers in our cells. In 2021, we announced test results for our four-layer and 10-layer solid-state battery cells, and in February 2022, we announced early cycling test results for 16-layer cells, all in commercially relevant areas (ranging from approximately 60x75mm to 70x85mm). In order to produce commercially-viable solid-state battery cells, we must produce battery cells which will require several dozen layers, the exact number of which will depend on our customers’ requirements. We will need to overcome the developmental challenges to increase the layer count and implement the appropriate cell design for our solid-state battery cell.

•Continued improvement in the solid-state separator. We are working to improve the quality and uniformity of our solid-state separators, to further improve, among other things, the cycling behavior, power, operating conditions of our cells and to continue to reduce separator thickness.

•Improvement of our separator manufacturing process. We have selected a method of continuous processing found at scale in both the battery and ceramic industries and are working on continuous improvement of this process, including better consistency and higher throughput. Regarding consistency, tightening the variability of separator quality results in better yield. Regarding throughput, increasing the volume of separator production results in the increased quantities required for higher layer counts and delivery of more test cells to prospective customers. We are automating our manufacturing process and purchasing larger-scale manufacturing equipment. We will need to substantially improve our manufacturing processes to increase throughput required for higher layer counts and to achieve the cost, performance and volume levels required for commercial shipments.

•Continued improvement of the cathode. Our cathodes use a combination of conventional cathode active materials such as NMC or a cobalt-free, nickel-free composition like LFP with a catholyte made of an organic polymer and organic liquid. In the future, we may use other compositions of cathode active materials. Over the years, we have developed catholytes made of differing mixtures of organic polymer and organic liquid electrolyte to optimize performance across multiple metrics such as voltage, temperature, power, and safety, among others. We continue to test solid, gel and liquid catholytes in our cells. The solid catholyte is part of our ongoing research and development investigation into inorganic catholytes. Our solid-state separator platform is being designed to enable faster charge rate for thicker cathode electrodes, which when combined with a lithium-metal anode, may further increase cell energy densities.

Intellectual Property

The success of our business and technology leadership is supported by our proprietary battery technology. We rely upon a combination of patent, trademark and trade secret laws in the United States and other jurisdictions, as well as license agreements and other contractual protections, to establish, maintain and enforce rights in our proprietary technologies. In addition, we seek to protect our intellectual property rights through nondisclosure and invention assignment agreements with our employees and consultants and through non-disclosure agreements with business partners and other third parties. We regularly file applications for patents and have a significant number of patents in the United States and other countries where we expect to do business. Our patent portfolio is deepest in the area of solid-state separators with additional areas of strength in anodes, next-generation cathode materials, and cell, module, and pack design specific to lithium-metal batteries. Our trade secrets primarily cover manufacturing methods.

As of December 31, 2021, we owned or licensed, on an exclusive basis, 92 issued U.S. patents and 49 pending or allowed U.S. patent applications, and 143 granted foreign patents and patent applications. We have 2 registered U.S. trademark and 5 pending U.S. trademark applications. Patents issued to us start expiring in 2033.

Competition

The EV market, and the battery segment in particular, is evolving and highly competitive. With the introduction of new technologies and the potential entry of new competitors into the market, we expect competition to increase in the future, which could harm our business, results of operations, or financial condition.

Our prospective competitors include major manufacturers currently supplying the industry, automotive OEMs and potential new entrants to the industry. Major companies now supplying batteries for the EV industry include Panasonic Corporation, Samsung SDI, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited, LG Energy Solutions and BYD Co. Limited. They supply conventional lithium-ion batteries and in many cases are seeking to develop solid-state batteries, including potentially lithium-metal batteries. In addition, because of the importance of electrification, many automotive OEMs are researching and investing in solid-state battery efforts and, in some cases, in battery development and production. For example, Tesla, Inc. is building multiple battery gigafactories and potentially could supply batteries to other automotive OEMs, and Toyota Motors and a Japanese consortium have a multi-year initiative pursuing solid-state batteries.

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A number of development-stage companies such as SES and Solid Power are also seeking to improve conventional lithium-ion batteries or to develop new technologies for solid-state batteries, including lithium-metal batteries. Potential new entrants are seeking to develop new technologies for cathodes, anodes, electrolytes and additives. Some of these companies have established relationships with automotive OEMs and are in varying stages of development.

We believe our ability to compete successfully with lithium-ion battery manufacturers and with other companies seeking to develop solid-state batteries will depend on a number of factors including battery price, safety, energy density, charge rate and cycle life, and on non-technical factors such as brand, established customer relationships and financial and manufacturing resources.

Many of the incumbents have, and future entrants may have, greater resources than we have and may also be able to devote greater resources to the development of their current and future technologies. They may also have greater access to larger potential customer bases and have and may continue to establish cooperative or strategic relationships amongst themselves or with third parties (including automotive OEMs) that may further enhance their resources and offerings.

Government Regulation and Compliance

There are government regulations pertaining to battery safety, transportation of batteries, use of batteries in cars, factory safety, and disposal of hazardous materials. We will ultimately have to comply with these regulations to sell our batteries into the market. The license and sale of our batteries abroad is likely to be subject to export controls in the future.

Employees

We pride ourselves on the quality of our world-class team and seek to hire only employees dedicated to our strategic mission. Many of our employees have significant experience working with large battery manufacturers and automotive OEMS. As of December 31, 2021, we employed approximately 570 employees, based primarily in our headquarters in San Jose, California. Over 500 of our employees are engaged in research and development and related functions, and more than half of these employees hold engineering and scientific degrees, including many from the world’s top universities.

We seek team members who want to help solve a significant problem that will positively impact the world. We value diversity and recognize the importance of fostering a positive, inclusive culture. As such, we have actively taken steps towards eliminating unconscious bias in our hiring and promotion processes while enabling us to add and promote team members who demonstrate behaviors aligned with our values, including but not limited to delivering unconscious bias training to senior leaders, redesigning and enhancing hiring processes and establishing new college relationships to increase the diversity of our candidate pool.

We are committed to maintaining equitable compensation programs including equity participation. We offer market-competitive salaries and strong equity compensation aimed at attracting and retaining team members capable of making exceptional contributions to our success. Our compensation decisions are guided by the external market, role criticality, and the contributions of each team member.

To date, we have not experienced any work stoppages and we consider our relationship with our employees to be good. None of our employees are either represented by a labor union or are subject to a collective bargaining agreement.

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Item 1A. Risk Factors.

The following summary risk factors and other information included in this Report should be carefully considered. The summary risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently deem less significant may also affect our business operations or financial results. If any of the following risks actually materialize, our stock price, business, operating results and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. For more information, see below for more detailed descriptions of each risk factor.

•We face significant challenges in our attempt to develop a solid-state battery cell and produce it at high volumes with acceptable quality, consistency, throughput and cost. The pace of development in materials science is often not predictable, and we may encounter delays and cost overruns related to planning, permitting, construction, equipment installation, utilities infrastructure installation and operations start-up of our manufacturing facilities. Delays or failures in accomplishing these and other development objectives may delay or prevent successful commercialization of our products.

•We may not be able to establish supply relationships for necessary materials, components or equipment or may be required to pay more than anticipated for components or equipment, which could delay the introduction of our product and negatively impact our business.

•Our relationship with Volkswagen is subject to various risks which could adversely affect our business and future prospects. There are no assurances that we will be able to commercialize solid-state batteries from our joint development relationship with Volkswagen.

•If our batteries fail to perform as expected, our ability to develop, market and sell our batteries could be harmed.

•We may not succeed in attracting customers during the development stage or for high volume commercial production, and our future growth and success depend on our ability to attract and retain customers.

•We may be unable to adequately control the costs associated with our operations and the components necessary to build our solid-state battery cells, and, if we are unable to control these costs and achieve cost advantages in our production of our solid-state battery cells at scale, our business will be adversely affected.

•We rely heavily on our intellectual property portfolio. If we are unable to protect our intellectual property rights, our business and competitive position would be harmed.

•We may need to defend ourselves against intellectual property infringement claims or other litigation, which may be time-consuming and could cause us to incur substantial costs.

•We may not be able to accurately estimate the future supply and demand for our batteries, which could result in a variety of inefficiencies in our business and hinder our ability to generate revenue. If we fail to accurately predict our manufacturing requirements, we could incur additional costs or experience delays.

•The battery market continues to evolve, is highly competitive, and we may not be successful in competing in this industry or establishing and maintaining confidence in our long-term business prospects among current and future partners and customers.

•The trading price of our Class A Common Stock has been and may in the future continue to be subject to extreme volatility.

•We have had to restate our previously issued financial statements and in connection with such process, identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. Although this material weakness has been remediated, we cannot provide assurances that additional material weaknesses, or significant deficiencies, will not occur in the future.

The following risk factors apply to our business and operations. These risk factors are not exhaustive, and investors are encouraged to perform their own investigation with respect to our business, financial condition and prospects. We may face additional risks and uncertainties that are not presently known to us, or that we currently deem immaterial, which may also impair our business. The following discussion should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and notes to the financial statements included elsewhere in this Report.

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Risks Related to Our Technology Development and Scale-Up

We face significant challenges in our attempt to develop a solid-state battery cell and produce it at high volumes with acceptable quality, consistency, throughput and costs. The pace of development in materials science is often not predictable and we may encounter delays and cost overruns related to planning, permitting, construction, equipment installation, utilities infrastructure installation and operations start-up of our manufacturing facilities. Delays or failures in accomplishing these and other development objectives may delay or prevent successful commercialization of our products.

Developing lithium-metal solid-state batteries that meet the requirements for wide adoption by automotive OEMs is a difficult undertaking and, as far as we are aware, has never been done before. We are still in development stage and face significant challenges in completing development of our multi-layer battery cells and in producing battery cells in commercial volumes. Some of the development challenges that could prevent the introduction of our solid-state battery cell include difficulties with increasing the quality, consistency and throughput of our separators and cells, increasing the size and layer count of our multi-layer cells, increasing manufacturing to produce the volume of cells needed for our technology development and customer applications, installing, bringing up and optimizing higher volume manufacturing equipment, packaging design and engineering to ensure adequate cycle life, cost reduction, completion of the rigorous and challenging specifications required by our automotive partners, including but not limited to, calendar life, mechanical testing, and abuse testing and development of the final manufacturing processes.

Our solid-state separators are in the development stage. These separators have never been used before for battery applications (or to our knowledge, for any other applications) and there are significant quality, consistency and throughput, cost and manufacturing process challenges to be solved in order for the separators to be produced and used commercially. We are likely to encounter engineering challenges as we increase the lateral dimensions, reduce the thickness and increase the production volume of our solid-state separators. If we are not able to overcome these barriers in developing and producing its solid-state separators at commercial volumes, our business could fail.

To achieve target energy density, we need to assemble our solid-state layers into a multi-layer format, which is enclosed within a single battery package. Depending upon our customer’s requirements, our battery cell may require dozens of layers within each battery package. We have tested single-layer, four-layer, 10-layer and 16-layer cells in commercially relevant areas that measure approximately 60x75mm to 70x85mm, but we must make multi-layer cells in commercially relevant areas with dozens of layers and do so at a high yield without compromising performance, and while solving related packaging challenges in a way that is scalable and low-cost. There are significant engineering and mechanical challenges that we must overcome to build our multi-layer battery cells. In addition, we will need to acquire certain tools that we currently do not possess and develop the manufacturing process necessary to make these multi-layer battery cells in high volume. If we are not able to overcome these developmental hurdles in building our multi-layer cells, our business is likely to fail.

We are evaluating multiple cathode material compositions for inclusion in our solid-state battery cells and have not yet finalized the cathode composition or formulation. We also have not validated that the current cell design meets all automotive requirements. We have not yet validated a manufacturing process or acquired the tools necessary to produce high volumes of our cathode electrode that meets all commercial requirements. If we are not able to overcome these developmental and manufacturing hurdles our business likely will fail.

Even if we complete development and achieve volume production of our solid-state battery, if the cost, performance characteristics or other specifications of the battery fall short of our targets, our sales, product pricing and margins would likely be adversely affected.

In addition, we must advance our manufacturing processes to include more automation, such as automated stackers, and to use higher volume tools and processes, such as moving to larger continuous flow equipment. We may encounter delays or unexpected challenges in the delivery, installation and operation of the new equipment. Examples include global supply chain issues that impact our equipment suppliers, supplier non-performance, equipment damage in transit, and COVID-19 related delays. Further, we must build QS-0 to expand our capacity to produce engineering samples or prototype cells needed for our development work and to supply additional cells to prospective customers for testing. We could encounter significant delays and cost overruns related to planning, permitting, construction, equipment installation, utilities infrastructure installation, and operations start-up of our manufacturing facilities, including QS-0. For example, at our proposed QS-0 facility, we are working with our local utility company to increase electrical power supply to levels sufficient to meet our planned power demands, and recent delays associated with material shortage and backups at key shipping ports could impact the capacity at which we can run the facility; and certain of our construction contractors have previously reported delays due to labor strikes of their employees that have been resolved. We must substantially improve our manufacturing processes to increase yield and throughput to achieve the cost, performance and volume levels required for commercial shipments. In addition, our multi-layer battery cells must simultaneously satisfy all of the commercial and safety requirements of our customers.

Any delay in the development or manufacturing scale-up of our solid-state battery cells would negatively impact our business as it will delay time to revenue and negatively impact our customer relationships. Additionally, we may encounter delays in obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals or launching our solid-state battery on the market, including delays in entering into agreements for the supply of component parts and manufacturing tools and supplies. Delays in the launching of our product would materially damage our business, prospects, financial condition, operating results and brand.

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We may not be able to establish supply relationships for necessary materials, components or equipment or may be required to pay more than anticipated for components or equipment, which could delay the introduction of our product and negatively impact our business.

We rely on third-party suppliers for components and equipment necessary to develop and manufacture our solid-state batteries, including key supplies, such as our cathode material and manufacturing tools for both our separator and solid-state battery cells. We are collaborating with key suppliers but have not yet entered into agreements for the supply of production quantities of these materials. To the extent that we are unable to enter into commercial agreements with these suppliers on beneficial terms, or these suppliers experience difficulties ramping up their supply of materials to meet our requirements, the introduction of our battery will be delayed. To the extent our suppliers experience any delays in providing or developing the necessary materials, we could experience delays in delivering on our timelines. For example, we have previously experienced minor disruptions to the supply of process gas due to the shortage of truck drivers related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and have also experienced disruption to the supply of petroleum-derived products as a result of the February 2021 North American cold wave that shut down refineries and other facilities.

We expect to incur significant costs related to procuring materials required to manufacture and assemble our batteries. We expect to use various materials in our batteries that will require us to negotiate purchase agreements and delivery lead-times on advantageous terms. We may not be able to control fluctuation in the prices for these materials or negotiate agreement with suppliers on terms that are beneficial to us. Our business depends on the continued supply of certain proprietary materials for our products. We are exposed to multiple risks relating to the availability and pricing of such materials and components. Substantial increases in the prices for our raw materials or components would increase our operating costs and negatively impact our prospects.

Any disruption in the supply of components, equipment or materials could temporarily disrupt research and development activities or production of our batteries until an alternative supplier is able to supply the required material. Changes in business conditions, unforeseen circumstances, governmental changes, disruptions caused by power outages, weather events and other natural disasters, and other factors beyond our control or which we do not presently anticipate, could also affect our suppliers’ ability to deliver components or equipment to us on a timely basis. Any of the foregoing could materially and adversely affect our results of operations, financial condition and prospects.

Currency fluctuations, trade barriers, tariffs or shortages and other general economic or political conditions may limit our ability to obtain key components or equipment for our solid-state batteries or significantly increase freight charges, raw material costs and other expenses associated with our business, which could further materially and adversely affect our results of operations, financial condition and prospects.

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We may be unable to adequately control the costs associated with our operations and the components necessary to build our solid-state battery cells, and, if we are unable to control these costs and achieve cost advantages in our production of our solid-state battery cells at scale, our business will be adversely affected.

We require significant capital to develop and grow our business and expect to incur significant expenses, including those relating to research and development, raw material procurement, leases, sales and distribution as we build our brand and market our batteries, and general and administrative costs as we scale our operations. Our ability to become profitable in the future will not only depend on our ability to successfully market our solid-state batteries and services, but also to control our costs and achieve the target cost projections that we have, including our projected cost advantage when compared to the costs of building traditional lithium-ion batteries at scale. If we are unable to cost efficiently design, manufacture, market, sell and distribute our solid-state batteries and services, our margins, profitability and prospects would be materially and adversely affected. We have not yet produced any solid-state battery cells at the commercial size or in volume and our forecasted cost advantage for the production of these cells at scale, compared to conventional lithium-ion cells, will require us to achieve rates of throughput, use of electricity and consumables, yield, and rate of automation demonstrated for mature battery, battery material, and ceramic manufacturing processes, that we have not yet achieved. If we are unable to achieve these targeted rates, our business will be adversely impacted.

In particular, while we have estimated that eliminating the anode host material and the associated manufacturing costs will provide a savings in production at scale compared to the costs of building traditional lithium-ion batteries at leading manufacturers, that estimate is subject to numerous assumptions and uncertainties. To achieve those savings we will need to achieve significant cost savings in battery design and manufacturing, in addition to the cost savings associated with the elimination of an anode from our solid-state battery cells, while controlling costs associated with the manufacture of our solid-state separator, including achieving substantial improvements in throughput and yield required to hit commercial targets. Further, we will need to capture industry cost savings in the materials, components, equipment, and processes that we share, notably in the cathode, cell design, and factory. We cannot be certain that we will achieve these cost savings or that future efficiency improvements in lithium-ion battery manufacturing will not reduce or eliminate these estimated cost savings.

We rely on complex machinery for our operations, and production involves a significant degree of risk and uncertainty in terms of operational performance and costs.

We rely heavily on complex machinery for our operations and the production of our solid-state battery cells, and this equipment has not yet been qualified to operate at large-scale manufacturing. The work required to integrate this equipment into the production of our solid-state battery cells is time intensive and requires us to work closely with the equipment provider to ensure that it works properly for our unique battery technology. This integration work will involve a significant degree of uncertainty and risk and may result in the delay in the scaling up of production or result in additional cost to our battery cells.

Both our pilot manufacturing facilities and our large-scale manufacturing facility will require large-scale machinery. Such machinery is likely to suffer unexpected malfunctions from time to time and will require repairs and spare parts to resume operations, which may not be available when needed. Unexpected malfunctions of our production equipment may significantly affect the intended operational efficiency. In addition, because this equipment has not been used to build solid-state battery cells, the operational performance and costs associated with this equipment can be difficult to predict and may be influenced by factors outside of our control, such as, but not limited to, failures by suppliers to deliver necessary components of our products in a timely manner and at prices and volumes acceptable to us, environmental hazards and remediation, difficulty or delays in obtaining governmental permits, damages or defects in systems, industrial accidents, fires, seismic activity and other natural disasters.

Operational problems with our manufacturing equipment could result in the personal injury to or death of workers, the loss of production equipment, damage to manufacturing facilities, monetary losses, delays and unanticipated fluctuations in production. In addition, operational problems may result in environmental damage, administrative fines, increased insurance costs and potential legal liabilities. All of these operational problems could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, cash flows, financial condition or prospects.

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Customer Risks and Risks Related to Our Partnership with Volkswagen

Our relationship with Volkswagen is subject to various risks which could adversely affect our business and future prospects. There are no assurances that we will be able to commercialize solid-state batteries from our joint development relationship with Volkswagen.

We and Volkswagen have formed a joint venture to collaborate on the manufacturing ramp up of our solid-state battery cell.

There is no assurance that we will be able to complete the development of the solid-state battery cells in the time frame required by the joint venture arrangements. If we do not complete this development in a timely manner, Volkswagen may terminate its participation in the joint venture. Our joint venture arrangements with Volkswagen provide a framework for our cooperation and requires that we and Volkswagen enter into certain additional arrangements regarding the purchase by the joint venture of solid-state separators from us, the purchase and pricing of the solid-state battery cells that will be produced by the joint venture and sold to Volkswagen, and the terms for licensing our technology to the joint venture. There can be no assurance that we will be able to agree with Volkswagen on these key elements on terms that are financially beneficial for us or that we will be able to enter into the additional arrangements, including any purchase orders, with Volkswagen for commercialization under the joint venture arrangements.

The commercial terms of the purchase by Volkswagen of the output of the joint venture will depend on the performance of our solid-state battery and the demand for the vehicles that Volkswagen develops to utilize the solid-state battery cells that will be produced by the joint venture. If we cannot complete the development of our solid-state battery cells, Volkswagen does not select our solid-state battery cell for commercialization or if there is a delay in the introduction of the Volkswagen vehicles that intend to use our solid-state battery cells, our business will be harmed.

The strong relationship that we have developed with Volkswagen and rights under the joint venture agreement may deter other automotive OEMs from working closely with us. If we are not able to expand our other customer relationships, or if we become too dependent on Volkswagen for our revenue, our business could be harmed.

Volkswagen may have economic, business or legal interests or goals that are inconsistent with our goals. Any significant disagreements with Volkswagen may impede our ability to maximize the benefits of our partnerships and slow the commercialization of our solid-state battery. Our joint venture arrangements may require us, among other things, to pay certain costs or to make certain capital investments or to seek Volkswagen’s consent to take certain actions. In addition, if Volkswagen is unable or unwilling to meet its economic or other obligations under the joint venture arrangements, we may be required to either fulfill those obligations alone to ensure the ongoing success of the joint venture or to dissolve and liquidate the joint venture. These factors could result in a material adverse effect on our business and financial results.

If our batteries fail to perform as expected, our ability to develop, market, and sell our batteries could be harmed.

Once commercial production of our solid-state battery cells commences, our batteries may contain defects in design and manufacture that may cause them to not perform as expected or that may require repairs, recalls, and design changes. Our batteries are inherently complex and incorporate technology and components that have not been used for other applications and that may contain defects and errors, particularly when first introduced. We have a limited frame of reference from which to evaluate the long-term performance of our solid-state batteries. There can be no assurance that we will be able to detect and fix any defects in our solid-state batteries prior to the sale to potential consumers. If our batteries fail to perform as expected, we could lose design wins and customers may delay deliveries, terminate further orders or initiate product recalls, each of which could adversely affect our sales and brand and could adversely affect our business, prospects, and results of operations.

We may not succeed in attracting customers during the development stage or for high volume commercial production, and our future growth and success depend on our ability to attract and retain customers.

We may not succeed in attracting customers during the development stage or for high volume commercial production. For example, we may be unsuccessful at attracting additional customers for QS-0, in which case we may have excess capacity. In addition, if we are unable to attract new customers in need of high-volume commercial production of our products, our business may suffer.

Many of our potential customers tend to be large enterprises. Therefore, our future success will depend on our ability to effectively sell our products to such large customers. Sales to these end-customers involve risks that may not be present (or that are present to a lesser extent) with sales to smaller customers. These risks include, but are not limited to, (i) increased purchasing power and leverage held by large customers in negotiating contractual arrangements with us and (ii) longer sales cycles and the associated risk that substantial time and resources may be spent on a potential end-customer that elects not to purchase our solutions.

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Our potential customers that are large organizations often undertake a significant evaluation process that results in a lengthy sales cycle. In addition, product purchases by large organizations are frequently subject to budget constraints, multiple approvals and unanticipated administrative, processing and other delays. Finally, large organizations typically have longer implementation cycles, require greater product functionality and scalability, require a broader range of services, demand that vendors take on a larger share of risks, require acceptance provisions that can lead to a delay in revenue recognition and expect greater payment flexibility. All of these factors can add further risk to business conducted with these potential customers.

If the Put or Call Rights under our joint venture agreements with Volkswagen are exercised, it may have an adverse effect on our liquidity or our stockholders’ ownership could be diluted.

The joint venture structure we agreed to with Volkswagen is intended, in part, to protect our intellectual property. Certain key battery technology will continue to be owned by us and will be provided to the joint venture through a limited license for purposes of QS-1. We and Volkswagen still need to agree on the license terms for this battery technology license for QS-1 Expansion. The joint venture terminates upon the earliest to occur of (i) Volkswagen exercising specified put rights in the event of, amongst others, (a) a change of control of our company, or (b) the failure by us to meet specified development milestones within certain timeframes, (ii) us exercising specified call rights or Volkswagen exercising specified put rights if, among other things, the parties cannot agree to commercial terms for QS-1 or QS-1 Expansion within certain timeframes, (iii) a certain date after commencement of production of a Volkswagen series production vehicle using our battery cells (or an alternative end date if no such production was commenced after certain technical milestones with respect to our battery cell technology were reached) and (iv) December 31, 2028.

We may not have sufficient funds, borrowing capacity, or other capital resources available to pay for the interests of Volkswagen in cash if it exercises its put rights or to exercise our call rights. Such lack of available funds upon the exercising by Volkswagen of its put rights or by us of our call rights could force us to issue stock at a time we might not otherwise desire to do so in order to purchase the interests of Volkswagen. If we are required or choose to purchase those interests from Volkswagen, we could experience significant cash outflow, our other stockholders could see their holdings diluted through the issuance of shares to finance such payment obligations, and our financial condition and the price of our Class A Common Stock may be adversely affected.

We may not be able to accurately estimate the future supply and demand for our batteries, which could result in a variety of inefficiencies in our business and hinder our ability to generate revenue. If we fail to accurately predict and forecast our manufacturing requirements, we could incur additional costs or experience delays.

It is difficult to predict our future revenues and appropriately budget for our expenses, and we may have limited insight into trends that may emerge and affect our business. We anticipate being required to provide forecasts of our demand to our current and future suppliers prior to the scheduled delivery of products to potential customers. Currently, there is no historical basis for making judgments on the demand for our batteries or our ability to develop, manufacture, and deliver batteries, or our profitability in the future. If we overestimate our requirements, our suppliers may have excess inventory, which indirectly would increase our costs. If we underestimate our requirements, our suppliers may have inadequate inventory, which could interrupt manufacturing of our products and result in delays in shipments and revenues. In addition, lead times for materials and components that our suppliers order may vary significantly and depend on factors such as the specific supplier, contract terms and demand for each component at a given time. If we fail to order sufficient quantities of product components in a timely manner, the delivery of batteries to our potential customers could be delayed, which would harm our business, financial condition and operating results.

Our future growth and success are dependent upon consumers’ willingness to adopt EVs.

Our growth and future demand for our products is highly dependent upon the adoption by consumers of alternative fuel vehicles in general and EVs in particular. The market for new energy vehicles is still rapidly evolving, characterized by rapidly changing technologies, competitive pricing and competitive factors, evolving government regulation and industry standards, and changing consumer demands and behaviors. If the market for EVs in general does not develop as expected, or develops more slowly than expected, our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results could be harmed.

Concentration of ownership among Volkswagen and our executive officers, directors and their affiliates may prevent new investors from influencing significant corporate decisions.

As of December 31, 2021, Volkswagen beneficially owns approximately 20.5% of our Class A Common Stock and 18.8% of our Class B Common Stock outstanding, representing approximately 19.3% of the vote, and our executive officers, directors and their affiliates as a group beneficially own approximately 32.2% of our Class A Common Stock and 65.1% of our Class B Common Stock outstanding, representing approximately 56.4% of the vote. As a result, these stockholders will be able to exercise a significant level of control over all matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of directors, any amendment of our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation (the “Certificate of Incorporation”) and approval of significant corporate transactions. In addition, Volkswagen holds the right to designate two directors to our Board. This control could have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control or changes in our management and will make the approval of certain transactions difficult or impossible without the support of these stockholders and of their votes.

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Our Intellectual Property Risks

We rely heavily on our intellectual property portfolio. If we are unable to protect our intellectual property rights, our business and competitive position would be harmed.

We may not be able to prevent unauthorized use of our intellectual property, which could harm our business and competitive position. We rely upon a combination of the intellectual property protections afforded by patent, trademark and trade secret laws in the United States and other jurisdictions, as well as license agreements and other contractual protections, to establish, maintain and enforce rights in our proprietary technologies. In addition, we seek to protect our intellectual property rights through nondisclosure and invention assignment agreements with our employees and consultants, and through non-disclosure agreements with business partners and other third parties. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, third parties, including our business partners, may attempt to copy or otherwise obtain and use our intellectual property without our consent. Monitoring unauthorized use of our intellectual property is difficult and costly, and the steps we have taken or will take to prevent misappropriation may not be sufficient. Any enforcement efforts we undertake, including litigation, could be time-consuming and expensive and could divert management’s attention, which could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, existing intellectual property laws and contractual remedies may afford less protection than needed to safeguard our intellectual property portfolio.

Patent, trademark and trade secret laws vary significantly throughout the world. A number of foreign countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as do the laws of the United States. Therefore, our intellectual property rights may not be as strong or as easily enforced outside of the United States and efforts to protect against the unauthorized use of our intellectual property rights, technology and other proprietary rights may be more expensive and difficult outside of the United States. Failure to adequately protect our intellectual property rights could result in our competitors using our intellectual property to offer products, potentially resulting in the loss of some of our competitive advantage and a decrease in our revenue which would adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results.

We may need to defend ourselves against intellectual property infringement claims, which may be time-consuming and could cause us to incur substantial costs.

Companies, organizations or individuals, including our current and future competitors, may hold or obtain patents, trademarks or other proprietary rights that would prevent, limit or interfere with our ability to make, use, develop or sell our products, which could make it more difficult for us to operate our business. From time to time, we may receive inquiries from third parties inquiring whether we are infringing their intellectual property rights and/or seek court declarations that they do not infringe upon our intellectual property rights. Companies holding patents or other intellectual property rights relating to batteries, electric motors or electronic power management systems may bring suits alleging infringement of such rights or otherwise asserting their rights and seeking licenses. In addition, if we are determined to have infringed upon a third party’s intellectual property rights, we may be required to do one or more of the following:

•cease selling, incorporating or using products that incorporate the challenged intellectual property;

•pay substantial damages;

•obtain a license from the holder of the infringed intellectual property right, which license may not be available on reasonable terms or at all; or

•redesign our batteries.

In the event of a successful claim of infringement against us and our failure or inability to obtain a license to the infringed technology on reasonable terms, our business, prospects, operating results and financial condition could be materially adversely affected. In addition, any litigation or claims, whether or not well-founded, could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and management’s attention.

We also license patents and other intellectual property from third parties, and we may face claims that our use of this intellectual property infringes the rights of others. In such cases, we may seek indemnification from our licensors under our license contracts with them. However, our rights to indemnification may be unavailable or insufficient to cover our costs and losses, depending on our use of the technology, whether we choose to retain control over conduct of the litigation, and other factors.

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Our patent applications may not result in issued patents or our patent rights may be contested, circumvented, invalidated or limited in scope, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our ability to prevent others from interfering with our commercialization of our products.

Our patent applications may not result in issued patents, which may have a material adverse effect on our ability to prevent others from commercially exploiting products similar to ours. The status of patents involves complex legal and factual questions and the breadth of claims allowed is uncertain. As a result, we cannot be certain that the patent applications that we file will result in patents being issued, or that our patents and any patents that may be issued to us will afford protection against competitors with similar technology. Numerous patents and pending patent applications owned by others exist in the fields in which we have developed and are developing our technology. Any of our existing or pending patents may be challenged by others on the basis that they are invalid or unenforceable. Furthermore, patent applications filed in foreign countries are subject to laws, rules and procedures that differ from those of the United States, and thus we cannot be certain that foreign patent applications related to issued U.S. patents will be issued.

Even if our patent applications succeed and we are issued patents in accordance with them, we are still uncertain whether these patents will be contested, circumvented, invalidated or limited in scope in the future. The rights granted under any issued patents may not provide us with meaningful protection or competitive advantages, and some foreign countries provide significantly less effective patent enforcement than in the United States. In addition, the claims under any patents that issue from our patent applications may not be broad enough to prevent others from developing technologies that are similar or that achieve results similar to ours. The intellectual property rights of others could also bar us from licensing and exploiting any patents that issue from our pending applications. In addition, patents issued to us may be infringed upon or designed around by others and others may obtain patents that we need to license or design around, either of which would increase costs and may adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results.

Our Business Risks

The battery market continues to evolve, is highly competitive, and we may not be successful in competing in this industry or establishing and maintaining confidence in our long-term business prospects among current and future partners and customers.

The battery market in which we compete continues to evolve and is highly competitive. To date, we have focused our efforts on our lithium-metal solid-state battery technology, which is being designed to outperform conventional lithium-ion battery technology. However, lithium-ion battery technology has been widely adopted and our current competitors have, and future competitors may have, greater resources than we do and may also be able to devote greater resources to the development of their current and future technologies. These competitors also may have greater access to customers and may be able to establish cooperative or strategic relationships amongst themselves or with third parties that may further enhance their resources and competitive positioning. In addition, lithium-ion battery manufacturers may continue to reduce cost and expand supply of conventional batteries and therefore reduce the prospects for our business or negatively impact the ability for us to sell our products at a market-competitive price and yet at sufficient margins.

Many automotive OEMs and a number of battery technology companies are researching and investing in solid-state battery efforts and, in some cases, in battery development and production. There are a number of companies seeking to develop alternative approaches to solid-state battery technology, including lithium-metal batteries. We expect competition in battery technology and EVs to intensify due to increased demand for these vehicles and a regulatory push for EVs, continuing globalization, and consolidation in the worldwide automotive industry. Developments in alternative technologies or improvements in batteries technology made by competitors may materially adversely affect the sales, pricing and gross margins of our batteries. If a competing technology is developed that has superior operational or price performance, our business will be harmed. Similarly, if we fail to accurately predict and ensure that our battery technology can address customers’ changing needs or emerging technological trends, or if our customers fail to achieve the benefits expected from our solid-state batteries, our business will be harmed.

We must continue to commit significant resources to develop our battery technology to establish a competitive position, and these commitments will be made without knowing whether such investments will result in products potential customers will accept. There is no assurance we will successfully identify new customer requirements, develop and bring our batteries to market on a timely basis, or that products and technologies developed by others will not render our batteries obsolete or noncompetitive, any of which would adversely affect our business and operating results.

Customers will be less likely to purchase our batteries if they are not convinced that our business will succeed in the long term. Similarly, suppliers and other third parties will be less likely to invest time and resources in developing business relationships with us if they are not convinced that our business will succeed in the long term. Accordingly, to build and maintain our business, we must maintain confidence among current and future partners, customers, suppliers, analysts, ratings agencies and other parties in our long-term financial viability and business prospects. Maintaining such confidence may be particularly complicated by certain factors including those that are largely outside of our control, such as our limited operating history, market unfamiliarity with our products, any delays in scaling manufacturing, delivery and service operations to meet demand, competition and uncertainty regarding the future of EVs and our eventual production and sales performance compared with market expectations.

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We are an early-stage company with a history of financial losses and expect to incur significant expenses and continuing losses from operations for the foreseeable future.

We incurred a loss from operations of approximately $215.3 million and net loss of approximately $46.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 and an accumulated deficit of approximately $2.0 billion from our inception in 2010 through the year ended December 31, 2021. The net loss in the year ended December 31, 2021 includes the impact of a $168.7 million gain due to the non-cash fair value change of the Assumed Common Stock Warrant liabilities. We believe that we will continue to incur operating losses each quarter until at least the time we begin significant production of our lithium-metal solid-state batteries, which is not expected to occur until 2024 or 2025, and may occur later.

We expect the rate at which we will incur losses to be significantly higher in future periods as we, among other things, continue to incur significant expenses in connection with the design, development and manufacturing of our batteries; expand our research and development activities; invest in manufacturing capabilities; build up inventories of components for our batteries; increase our sales and marketing activities; develop our distribution infrastructure; and increase our general and administrative functions to support our growing operations. We may find that these efforts are more expensive than we currently anticipate or that these efforts may not result in revenues, which would further increase our losses.

We have been, and may in the future be, adversely affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic.

We face various risks related to epidemics, pandemics, and other outbreaks, including the recent COVID-19 pandemic. The impact of COVID-19, including changes in consumer and business behavior, pandemic fears and market downturns, and restrictions on business and individual activities, has created significant volatility in the global economy and led to reduced economic activity. The spread of COVID-19 has also impacted our potential customers and our suppliers by disrupting the manufacturing, delivery and overall supply chain of battery, EV and equipment manufacturers and suppliers and has led to a global decrease in battery and EV sales in markets around the world.

The pandemic has resulted in government authorities implementing numerous measures to try to contain the virus, such as travel bans and restrictions, quarantines, stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders, and business shutdowns. For example, employees at our headquarters located in San Jose, California were subject to a stay-at-home orders from the state and local governments. These measures have limited operations in our San Jose headquarters and have and may continue to adversely impact our employees, research and development activities and operations and the operations of our suppliers, vendors and business partners, and may negatively impact our sales and marketing activities. In addition, various aspects of our business cannot be conducted remotely, including many aspects of the development and manufacturing of our solid-state material and our battery cells. These measures by government authorities may remain in place for a significant period of time and they are likely to continue to adversely affect our future manufacturing plans, sales and marketing activities, business and results of operations. We may take further actions as may be required by government authorities or that we determine are in the best interests of our employees, suppliers, vendors and business partners.

The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact our business, prospects and results of operations will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including the duration and spread of the pandemic, the actions to contain the virus or treat its impact, including the distribution and administration of effective vaccines, the severity of breakthrough cases and COVID-19 variants, and how quickly and to what extent normal economic and operating activities can resume. Even after the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided, we may continue to experience an adverse impact to our business as a result of the global economic impact, including any recession that has occurred or may occur in the future.

There are no comparable recent events that may provide guidance as to the effect of the spread of COVID-19, and, as a result, the ultimate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or a similar health epidemic is highly uncertain.

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Our expectations and targets regarding the times when we will achieve various technical, pre-production and production objectives depend in large part upon assumptions and analyses developed by us. If these assumptions or analyses prove to be incorrect, we may not achieve these milestones when expected or at all.

Our expectations and targets regarding the times when we will achieve various technical, pre-production and production objectives reflect our current expectations and estimates. Whether we will achieve these objectives when we expect depends on a number of factors, many of which are outside our control, including, but not limited to:

•success and timing of development activity;

•unanticipated technical or manufacturing challenges or delays;

•technological developments relating to lithium-ion, lithium-metal solid-state or other batteries that could adversely affect the commercial potential of our technologies;

•whether we can obtain sufficient capital to build our manufacturing facilities and sustain and grow our business;

•adverse developments in our joint venture relationship with Volkswagen, including termination of the joint venture or delays in negotiating commercial terms for QS-1 or QS-1 Expansion;

•our ability to manage our growth;

•whether we can manage relationships with key suppliers;

•our ability to retain existing key management, integrate recent hires and attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel; and

•the overall strength and stability of domestic and international economies.

Unfavorable changes in any of these or other factors, most of which are beyond our control, could materially and adversely affect our ability to achieve our objectives when planned and our business, results of operations and financial results.

From time to time, we may be involved in litigation, regulatory actions or government investigations and inquiries, which could have an adverse impact on our profitability and consolidated financial position.

We may be involved in a variety of litigation, other claims, suits, regulatory actions or government investigations and inquiries and commercial or contractual disputes that, from time to time, are significant.

Warrants Litigation

Purported Company warrantholders filed actions against the Company in both the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and the New York State Supreme Court alleging, among other things, that they were entitled to exercise their warrants within 30 days of the closing of the Business Combination (the “Closing”) and that the preliminary and final versions of the proxy statement/prospectus/information statement dated September 21, 2020, and November 12, 2020, were misleading and/or omit material information concerning the exercise of the warrants. The lawsuit in the New York State Supreme Court was voluntarily discontinued on account of being duplicative of the federal lawsuit brought by the same three plaintiffs. The three lawsuits pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York have been consolidated for the purposes of discovery and motion practice. The operative consolidated complaint seeks monetary damages for alleged breach of contract, securities law violations, and fraud. We continue to believe this litigation is without merit and intend to defend ourselves vigorously.

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Securities Class Action Litigation

Between January 5, 2021 and May 4, 2021, four putative class action lawsuits were filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California by purported purchasers of Company securities. The court consolidated the actions and appointed a lead plaintiff and counsel. Lead plaintiff filed a consolidated complaint on June 21, 2021, which alleges a purported class that includes all persons who purchased or acquired our securities between November 27, 2020 and April 14, 2021. The consolidated complaint names the Company, its Chief Executive Officer, its Chief Financial Officer, and its Chief Technology Officer as defendants. The consolidated complaint alleges that the defendants purportedly made false and/or misleading statements and failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects, including information regarding the Company’s battery technology. On January 14, 2022, Defendants’ motion to dismiss the consolidated complaint was substantially denied. We continue to believe this litigation is without merit and intend to defend ourselves vigorously.

Shareholder Derivative Litigation

Two shareholder derivative suits were also filed in February 2021 against 11 officers and directors of the Company and have been consolidated into one action, with the first-filed complaint being designated the operative one. QuantumScape is the nominal defendant. The complaint alleges that the individual defendants breached various duties to the Company and contains additional similar allegations based on the same general allegations in the class action described immediately above. VGA is also named as a defendant in the derivative litigation. The stay of the derivative litigation that was in place expired upon entry of the order on the motion to dismiss in the above-referenced securities class action.

In addition, from time to time, we may also be involved in legal proceedings and investigations arising in the normal course of business including, without limitation, commercial or contractual disputes, including warranty claims and other disputes with potential customers and suppliers; intellectual property matters; personal injury claims; environmental issues; tax matters; and employment matters.

It is difficult to predict the outcome or ultimate financial exposure, if any, represented by these matters, and there can be no assurance that any such exposure will not be material. Such claims may also negatively affect our reputation.

We may become subject to product liability claims, which could harm our financial condition and liquidity if we are not able to successfully defend or insure against such claims.

We may become subject to product liability claims, even those without merit, which could harm our business, prospects, operating results, and financial condition. We face inherent risk of exposure to claims in the event our batteries do not perform as expected, fail to meet relevant safety standards or requirements, or malfunction resulting in personal injury or death. Our risks in this area are particularly pronounced given our batteries have not yet been commercially tested or mass produced. A successful product liability claim against us could require us to pay a substantial monetary award. Moreover, a product liability claim could generate substantial negative publicity about our batteries and business and inhibit or prevent commercialization of other future battery candidates, which would have a material adverse effect on our brand, business, prospects and operating results. Any insurance coverage might not be sufficient to cover all potential product liability claims. Any lawsuit seeking significant monetary damages either in excess of our coverage, or outside of our coverage, may have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business and financial condition. We may not be able to secure additional product liability insurance coverage on commercially acceptable terms or at reasonable costs when needed, particularly if we do face liability for our products and are forced to make a claim under our policy.

Our batteries and our website, systems, and data we maintain may be subject to intentional disruption, other security incidents, or alleged violations of laws, regulations, or other obligations relating to data handling that could result in liability and adversely impact our reputation and future sales.

The research, development, and manufacturing of our batteries, supporting information systems (including internal systems such as research and development systems or external systems such as our website), and data that we maintain may be subject to intentional or inadvertent disruption, security incidents, or violations of laws, regulations, or other obligations relating to data handling, or perceptions that any of the foregoing have occurred, that could result in private claims, demands and litigation, regulatory investigations and other proceedings, and fines and other liabilities and adversely impact our reputation and future sales. We expect to face significant challenges with respect to information security and maintaining the security and integrity of our systems and other systems used in our business, as well as with respect to the data stored on or processed by these systems. Advances in technology, an increased level of sophistication, and an increased level of expertise of hackers, new discoveries in the field of cryptography or others can result in a compromise or breach of, or other security incident with respect to, the systems used in our business or of security measures used in our business to protect confidential information, personal information, and other data. Additionally, remote working further increases the security threats that we and our third-party service providers face.

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The availability and effectiveness of our batteries, and our ability to conduct our business and operations, depend on the continued operation of information technology and communications systems, some of which we have yet to develop or otherwise obtain the ability to use. Systems used in our business, including data centers and other information technology systems, will be vulnerable to damage or interruption. Such systems could also be subject to break-ins, corporate sabotage or state-sponsored espionage, and intentional acts of vandalism, infection by ransomware, viruses, or other malware, as well as disruptions and security incidents as a result of non-technical issues, including intentional or inadvertent acts or omissions by employees, service providers, or others, to among other things, properly implement our software and related security patches. We use service providers to help provide certain services, and any such service providers face similar security and system disruption risks as us. Some of the systems used in our business are not and will not be fully redundant, and our disaster recovery planning cannot account for all eventualities. Any data security incidents or other disruptions to any data centers or other systems used in our business could result in lengthy interruptions in our service and may adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results.

Significant capital and other resources may be required in efforts to protect against information security breaches, security incidents, and system disruptions, or to alleviate problems caused by actual or suspected information security breaches and other data security incidents and system disruptions. The resources required may increase over time as the methods used by hackers and others engaged in online criminal activities and otherwise seeking to obtain unauthorized access to systems or data, and to disrupt systems, are increasingly sophisticated and constantly evolving. Security breaches and/or incidents could also remain undetected for an extended period. Any failure or perceived failure by us or our service providers to prevent information security breaches or other security incidents or system disruptions, or to comply with privacy policies or privacy-related legal obligations, or any compromise of security that results in or is perceived or reported to result in unauthorized access to, or loss, theft, alteration, release, transfer, unavailability, or other processing of, our information, or any personal information or other customer data or confidential information, that we or our service providers maintain or otherwise process, could cause our potential customers to lose trust in us, result in loss or theft of proprietary or sensitive data and intellectual property, could harm our reputation and competitive position and could expose us to legal claims, demands, and litigation, regulatory investigations and proceedings, and fines, penalties, and other liability. Any such actual or perceived security breach, security incident or disruption could also divert the efforts of our technical and management personnel and could require us to incur significant costs and operational consequences in connection with investigating, remediating, eliminating and putting in place additional tools and devices designed to prevent actual or perceived security breaches and other incidents and system disruptions.

Additionally, our handling of data relating to individuals is subject to a variety of laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection, and data security, and may become subject to additional obligations, including contractual obligations, relating to our maintenance and other processing of this data. Laws, regulations, and other actual and potential obligations relating to privacy, data protection, and data security are evolving rapidly, and we expect to potentially be subject to new laws and regulations, or new interpretations of laws and regulations, in the future in various jurisdictions. These laws, regulations, and other obligations, and changes in their interpretation, could require us to modify our operations and practices, restrict our activities, and increase our costs, and it is possible that these laws, regulations, and other obligations may be inconsistent with one another or be interpreted or asserted to be inconsistent with our business or practices. Any failure or perceived failure to comply with any applicable laws, regulations, or other obligations relating to privacy, data protection, or data security could also result in regulatory investigations and proceedings, and misuse of or failure to secure data relating to individuals could also result in claims and proceedings against us by governmental entities or others, penalties and other liability, and damage to our reputation and credibility, and could have a negative impact on potential future revenues and profits.

Our insurance policies may not cover all the potential losses arising from any such disruption, failure, security breach, or incident impacting our systems or data or third-party systems where information important to our business
operations is maintained.

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Our ability to manage our business and monitor results is highly dependent upon IT systems. A failure of these systems or our planned ERP and MES implementations could have a material adverse effect on our business.

We are highly dependent upon a variety of IT systems to operate our business. To continue to support our growth, we are making significant technological upgrades to our information systems. We are in the process of implementing a new enterprise resource planning (“ERP”) system and a new manufacturing execution system (“MES”) to perform various functions and improve on the efficiency of our business. These implementations are complicated, lengthy and require significant human investment that will result in a diversion of resources from other operations. Delays in execution of these project plans, or divergence from it, may result in cost overruns and, business interruptions. In addition, divergence from our project plan could negatively impact the timing and/or extent of productivity and process enhancement. We expect to achieve from the implementations. Failure to properly or adequately address any unaccounted for or unforeseen issues in successfully replacing our legacy systems could negatively impact our ability to support necessary business operations, including, without limitation, fulfilling federal, state and local reporting and filing requirements in a timely or accurate manner, or otherwise operate our business and production lines effectively. In addition, if any issues concerning the new systems result in, or contribute to, a delay in our timely reporting of our results of operations for any period or our not filing one or more periodic reports with the SEC on time, the price of our Class A Common Stock could decline substantially, and we could face costly lawsuits, including securities class actions. Further, as we are dependent upon our ability to gather and promptly transmit accurate information to key decision makers, our business, results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected if our information systems do not allow us to transmit accurate information, even for a short period of time. Failure to properly or adequately address these issues could negatively impact our ability to perform necessary business operations, which could adversely affect our reputation, competitive position, business, results of operations and financial condition.

The implementation of our planned new ERP and MES could negatively impact the effectiveness of business operations.

Our ERP system is critical to our ability to accurately maintain books and records, provide important information to our management and prepare our consolidated financial statements. The implementation of our planned new ERP system will also require the transformation of business and financial processes, and any such changes involve risks, including potential errors, processing inefficiencies and loss of data. If the transition to our planned new ERP system is not successful, and the new system and new processes do not operate as intended, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting could be adversely affected and our ability to assess it adequately could be further impacted. If difficulties in implementing the new ERP system or related processes result in a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, a failure to remediate the material weakness could also negatively impact our ability to prepare our future financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP. If we experience ongoing disruptions with such implementation and/or are unable to remediate any such material weakness, such events could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, competitive position, business, results of operations and financial condition.

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An MES is an information system that monitors and tracks the process of producing manufactured and research and development goods on the factory floor. The overall goal of the MES is to make certain that manufacturing operations are effectively executed to ensure development and production milestone and deliveries stay on schedule. Any impacts to our MES execution implementation timeline will prevent us from tracking and gathering accurate data associated with our production processes. Delays in our MES deployment could prevent us from accurately predicting product shipments and could result in negative impacts on our factory scaling efforts. If we experience ongoing disruptions with our MES implementation and/or are unable to remediate challenges as they arise, this could affect our reputation with customers, our competitive position, and could impact our ability to scale and grow our manufacturing operation.

The implementation of our new systems will involve substantial expenditures, as well as design, development and implementation activities. Until the new systems are fully implemented, we expect to incur additional expenses and capital expenditures to implement and test the systems, and there can be no assurance that issues relating to the systems will not occur or be identified. Our business and results of operations may be adversely affected if we experience operating problems, additional costs, or cost overruns during the implementation process, or if the systems or any related processes change significantly.

We are subject to anti-corruption, anti-bribery, anti-money laundering, financial and economic sanctions and similar laws, and non-compliance with such laws can subject us to administrative, civil and criminal fines and penalties, collateral consequences, remedial measures and legal expenses, all of which could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and reputation.

We are subject to anti-corruption, anti-bribery, anti-money laundering, financial and economic sanctions and similar laws and regulations in various jurisdictions in which we conduct or in the future may conduct activities, including the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), the U.K. Bribery Act 2010, and other anti-corruption laws and regulations. The FCPA and the U.K. Bribery Act 2010 prohibit us and our officers, directors, employees and business partners acting on our behalf, including agents, from corruptly offering, promising, authorizing or providing anything of value to a “foreign official” for the purposes of influencing official decisions or obtaining or retaining business or otherwise obtaining favorable treatment. The FCPA also requires companies to make and keep books, records and accounts that accurately reflect transactions and dispositions of assets and to maintain a system of adequate internal accounting controls. The U.K. Bribery Act also prohibits non-governmental “commercial” bribery and soliciting or accepting bribes. A violation of these laws or regulations could adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and reputation. Our policies and procedures designed to ensure compliance with these regulations may not be sufficient and our directors, officers, employees, representatives, consultants, agents, and business partners could engage in improper conduct for which we may be held responsible.

Non-compliance with anti-corruption, anti-bribery, anti-money laundering or financial and economic sanctions laws could subject us to whistleblower complaints, adverse media coverage, investigations, and severe administrative, civil and criminal sanctions, collateral consequences, remedial measures and legal expenses, all of which could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and reputation. In addition, changes in economic sanctions laws in the future could adversely impact our business and investments in our Class A Common Stock.

Our management has limited experience in operating a public company.

Some of our executive officers have limited experience in the management of a publicly traded company. As a public company, we are subject to significant regulatory oversight and reporting obligations under federal securities laws, and certain executives’ limited experience in dealing with the increasingly complex laws pertaining to public companies could be a significant disadvantage in that it is likely that an increasing amount of their time may be devoted to these activities which will result in less time being devoted to the management and growth of our Company. We may not have adequate personnel with the appropriate level of knowledge, experience, and training in the accounting policies, practices or internal controls over financial reporting required of public companies in the United States.

Our Regulatory Risks

We are subject to substantial regulation and unfavorable changes to, or failure by us to comply with, these regulations could substantially harm our business and operating results.

Our batteries, and the sale of EVs and motor vehicles in general, are subject to substantial regulation under international, federal, state and local laws, including export control laws. We expect to incur significant costs in complying with these regulations. Regulations related to the battery and EV industry and alternative energy are currently evolving and we face risks associated with changes to these regulations.

As a result of the Company’s status as a special purpose acquisition company before the Business Combination, we are also subject to regulations and legal circumstances that differ from other publicly traded companies that did not complete a business combination.

Internationally, there may be laws and regulations in jurisdictions we have not yet entered or laws we are unaware of in jurisdictions we have entered that may restrict our sales or other business practices. The laws in this area can be complex, difficult to interpret and may change over time. Continued regulatory limitations and other obstacles that may interfere with our ability to commercialize our products could have a negative and material impact on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

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To the extent regulations change, we may not comply with applicable international, federal, state or local regulations, which would have an adverse effect on our business. Compliance with changing regulations could be burdensome, time consuming, and expensive. To the extent compliance with new regulations is cost prohibitive, our business, prospects, financial condition and operating results would be adversely affected.

We are subject to requirements relating to environmental and safety regulations and environmental remediation matters which could adversely affect our business, results of operation and reputation.

We are subject to numerous federal, state and local environmental laws and regulations governing, among other things, solid and hazardous waste storage, treatment and disposal, and remediation of releases of hazardous materials. There are significant capital, operating and other costs associated with compliance with these environmental laws and regulations. Environmental laws and regulations may become more stringent in the future, which could increase costs of compliance or require us to manufacture with alternative technologies and materials.

Federal, state and local authorities also regulate a variety of matters, including, but not limited to, health, safety and permitting in addition to the environmental matters discussed above. New legislation and regulations may require us to make material changes to our operations, resulting in significant increases to the cost of production.

Our manufacturing process will have hazards such as but not limited to hazardous materials, machines with moving parts, and high voltage and/or high current electrical systems typical of large manufacturing equipment and related safety incidents. There may be safety incidents that damage machinery or product, slow or stop production, or harm employees. Consequences may include litigation, regulation, fines, increased insurance premiums, mandates to temporarily halt production, workers’ compensation claims, or other actions that impact our company brand, finances, or ability to operate.

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Risks Related to Ownership of Our Common Stock and Our Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws Provisions

Our Class A Common Stock has been and may in the future continue to be subject to extreme volatility.

The trading price of our Class A Common Stock has been and may in the future continue to be subject to extreme volatility. For example, from November 27, 2020, the date our Class A Common Stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE"), through December 31, 2021, our Class A Common Stock has experienced an intra-day trading high of $132.73 per share and an intra-day trading low of $19.12 per share. At certain times during such period, the daily fluctuations in the trading price of our Class A Common Stock were substantially greater than 10%. We cannot predict the magnitude of future fluctuations in the trading price of our Class A Common Stock. The trading price of our Class A Common Stock may be affected by a number of factors, including events described in the risk factors set forth in this Report and in our other reports filed with the SEC from time to time, as well as our operating results, financial condition and other events or factors. Any of the factors listed below could have a material adverse effect on your investment in our securities. Factors affecting the trading price of our securities may include:

•announcements by us or our competitors regarding technical developments and levels of performance achieved by our or their battery technologies;

•announcements by us regarding the timing of our production objectives, including regarding QS-0 , QS-1, and QS-1 Expansion;

•announcements by us or Volkswagen regarding developments in our relationship with Volkswagen;

•our ability to bring our products and technologies to market on a timely basis, or at all;

•our operating results or development efforts failing to meet the expectation of securities analysts or investors in a particular period;

•actual or anticipated fluctuations in our quarterly financial results or the quarterly financial results of companies perceived to be similar to it;

•changes in the market’s expectations about our operating results or the EV industry;

•success of competitors actual or perceived development efforts;

•changes in financial estimates and recommendations by securities analysts concerning the Company or the battery industry in general;

•operating and share price performance of other companies that investors deem comparable to the Company;

•disputes or other developments related to proprietary rights, including patents, litigation matters and our ability to obtain intellectual property protection for our technologies;

•changes in laws and regulations affecting our business;

•our ability to meet compliance requirements;

•commencement of, or involvement in, litigation involving the Company;

•changes in our capital structure, such as future issuances of securities or the incurrence of additional debt;

•the volume of shares of Class A Common Stock available for public sale;

•the level of demand for our stock, including the amount of short interest in our Class A Common Stock;

•any major change in our Board or management;

•sales of substantial amounts of the shares of Class A Common Stock by our directors, executive officers or significant stockholders or the perception that such sales could occur;

•changes in the estimates and assumptions that we make in the preparation of our financial statements may result in the fluctuation of our results of operations; and

•general economic and political conditions such as recessions, interest rates, fuel prices, international currency fluctuations and acts of war or terrorism.

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Broad market and industry factors may materially harm the market price of our securities irrespective of our operating performance. The stock market has experienced price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of the particular companies affected. The trading prices and valuations of securities may not be predictable. A loss of investor confidence in the market or the securities of other companies which investors perceive to be similar to the Company could depress the market price of our securities regardless of our business, prospects, financial conditions or results of operations. A decline in the market price of our securities also could adversely affect our ability to issue additional securities and our ability to obtain additional financing in the future.

Following certain periods of volatility in the market price of our securities, we may become subject of securities litigation. We have experienced and may in the future experience additional litigation following periods of volatility. This type of litigation may result in substantial costs and a diversion of management’s attention and resources.

Sales of substantial amounts of our Class A Common Stock in the public markets, or the perception that such sales could occur, could reduce the price that our Class A Common Stock might otherwise attain.

Sales of a substantial number of shares of our Class A Common Stock in the public market, or the perception that such sales could occur, could adversely affect the market price of our Class A Common Stock and may make it more difficult for you to sell your Class A Common Stock at a time and price that you deem appropriate.

In connection with the Business Combination Agreement and the transactions contemplated by the Business Combination Agreement, certain holders of our securities entered into certain lock-up agreements, pursuant to which they agreed to certain restrictions on the transfer of our securities.

In addition, we have filed registration statements to register shares for certain stockholders to sell such shares in the United States. We have also filed a registration statement to register shares reserved for future issuance under our equity compensation plans. Subject to there being effective registration statements covering the sales of such shares, the satisfaction of applicable exercise periods and expiration of the lock-up agreements referred to above, the shares issued upon exercise of outstanding stock options and settlement of outstanding restricted stock units (“RSUs”) will be available for immediate resale in the United States in the open market.

Our business model of manufacturing solid-state batteries is capital-intensive, and we may not be able to raise additional capital on attractive terms, if at all, which could be dilutive to stockholders. If we cannot raise additional capital when needed, our operations and prospects could be materially and adversely affected.

The development, design, manufacture and sale of batteries is a capital-intensive business, which we currently finance through joint venture arrangements and other third-party financings. As a result of the capital-intensive nature of our business, we can be expected to continue to sustain substantial operating expenses without generating sufficient revenues to cover expenditures. Over time, we expect that we will need to raise additional funds, including through entry into new or extending existing joint venture arrangements, through the issuance of equity, equity-related or debt securities or through obtaining credit from financial institutions to fund, together with our principal sources of liquidity, ongoing costs such as research and development relating to our batteries, the construction of large factories, any significant unplanned or accelerated expenses, and new strategic investments. We cannot be certain that additional capital will be available on attractive terms, if at all, when needed, which could be dilutive to stockholders, and our financial condition, results of operations, business and prospects could be materially and adversely affected.

Short sellers may engage in manipulative activity that could drive down the market price of our Class A Common Stock.

Short selling is the practice of selling securities that the seller does not own but rather has borrowed or intends to borrow from a third party with the intention of later buying lower priced identical securities to return to the lender. Accordingly, it is in the interest of a short seller of our Class A Common Stock for the price to decline. Some short sellers publish, or arrange for the publication of, opinions or characterizations regarding which may create negative market momentum. Issuers, like us, whose securities have historically had limited trading history or volumes and/or have been susceptible to relatively high volatility levels can be particularly vulnerable to such short seller attacks. No assurances can be made that similar declines in the market price of our Class A Common Stock will not occur in the future, in connection with the activities of short sellers.

We are required to use judgments in making estimates and assumptions in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements, and our results of operations may fluctuate significantly as a result of changes our estimates and assumptions.

Certain of our accounting policies require the application of subjective or complex judgments, often requiring us to make estimates about the effects of matters that are inherently uncertain and may change in subsequent periods, or for which the use of different estimates that could have reasonably been used in the current period would have had a material impact on our financial condition and results of operations.

All stock-based awards are required to be recognized based on their estimated grant date fair values. The amount recognized could vary depending on a number of assumptions or changes that may occur. We have granted stock-based awards to our CEO and other members of our management team pursuant to the Extraordinary Performance Award Program (the "EPA Program"). EPA Program awards have a vesting schedule based on the attainment of both performance (e.g. business milestones) and market conditions (e.g. stock price target).

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For awards containing service, performance and market conditions, where all conditions must be satisfied prior to vesting, such as the EPA Program awards, compensation expense is recognized over the requisite service period, which is based on management’s estimate of the probability and timing of the performance condition being satisfied, adjusted at each reporting period. These estimates require management's judgments and changes in the probability-based assumptions can materially affect the timing of recognition of stock-based compensation expense and consequently, the related amount recognized in our statements of operations and comprehensive income.

The dual class structure of our Common Stock has the effect of concentrating voting control with the current holders of Class B Common Stock. This will limit or preclude the ability of other stockholders to influence corporate matters, including the outcome of important transactions, including a change in control.

Shares of Class B Common Stock have 10 votes per share, while shares of Class A Common Stock have one vote per share. Although no one holder or group of holders has control of more than 30.0% of the voting power of our capital stock, as of December 31, 2021 the holders of the Class B Common Stock (excluding the voting power of any shares of Class A Common Stock beneficially owned by such holders) control approximately 73.7% of the voting power of our capital stock and therefore collectively control matters submitted to our stockholders for approval, including the election of directors, amendments of our organizational documents and any merger, consolidation, sale of all or substantially all of our assets or other major corporate transactions. Even though these holders are not party to any agreement that requires them to vote together, they may have interests that differ from yours and may vote in a way with which you disagree and which may be adverse to your interests. This concentrated control may have the effect of delaying, preventing or deterring a change in control of us, could deprive our stockholders of an opportunity to receive a premium for their capital stock as part of a sale of us, and might ultimately affect the market price of shares of our Class A Common Stock.

Our dual class structure may depress the trading price of the Class A Common Stock.

We cannot predict whether our dual class structure will result in a lower or more volatile market price of the Class A Common Stock or in adverse publicity or other adverse consequences. For example, certain index providers have announced restrictions on including companies with multiple-class share structures in certain of their indexes. S&P Dow Jones and FTSE Russell have announced changes to their eligibility criteria for inclusion of shares of public companies on certain indices, including the S&P 500, pursuant to which companies with multiple classes of shares of common stock are excluded. In addition, several stockholder advisory firms have announced their opposition to the use of multiple class structures. As a result, the dual class structure of our Common Stock may cause stockholder advisory firms to publish negative commentary about our corporate governance practices or otherwise seek to cause us to change our capital structure. Any such exclusion from indices or any actions or publications by stockholder advisory firms critical of our corporate governance practices or capital structure could adversely affect the value and trading market of the Class A Common Stock.

Anti-takeover provisions in our Certificate of Incorporation, Bylaws and Delaware law could make an acquisition of us more difficult, limit attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our management and limit the market price of our Class A Common Stock.

The Certificate of Incorporation, amended and restated Bylaws (the “Bylaws”) and Delaware law contain provisions which could have the effect of rendering more difficult, delaying or preventing an acquisition deemed undesirable by our Board. These provisions include:

•authorizing “blank check” preferred stock, which could be issued by our Board without stockholder approval and may contain voting, liquidation, dividend and other rights superior to the Common Stock;

•limiting the liability of, and providing indemnification to, our directors and officers;

•prohibiting cumulative voting in the election of directors;

•providing that vacancies on our Board may be filled only by majority of directors then in office of our Board, even though less than a quorum;

•prohibiting the ability of our stockholders to call special meetings;

•establishing an advance notice procedure for stockholder proposals to be brought before an annual meeting, including proposed nominations of persons for election to our Board;

•requiring that, once there are no longer any outstanding shares of the Class B Common Stock, any action to be taken by our stockholders be effected at a duly called annual or special meeting and not by written consent;

•specifying that special meetings of our stockholders can be called only by a majority of our Board, the chair of our Board, or our Chief Executive Officer;

•requiring that, once there are no longer any outstanding shares of Class B Common Stock, the approval of holders of at least two-thirds of the outstanding voting securities to amend the Bylaws and certain provisions of the Certificate of Incorporation; and

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•reflecting two classes of Common Stock.

These provisions may frustrate or prevent any attempts by our stockholders to replace or remove our current management by making it more difficult for stockholders to replace members of our Board, which is responsible for appointing the members of our management. In addition, because we are incorporated in Delaware, we are governed by the provisions of Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”), which generally prohibits a Delaware corporation from engaging in any of a broad range of business combinations with any “interested” stockholder for a period of three years following the date on which the stockholder became an “interested” stockholder.

Our Bylaws provide, subject to limited exceptions, that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware and the federal district courts of the United States will be the sole and exclusive forum for certain stockholder litigation matters, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to obtain a chosen judicial forum for disputes with us or our directors, officers, employees or stockholders.

Our Bylaws provide that, unless otherwise consented to by us in writing, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (or, if the Court of Chancery does not have jurisdiction, another State court in Delaware or the federal district court for the District of Delaware) shall, to the fullest extent permitted by law, be the sole and exclusive forum for the following types of actions or proceedings: (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on behalf of the Company; (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by, or otherwise wrongdoing by, any of our directors, officers, or other employees to us or our stockholders; (iii) any action arising pursuant to any provision of the DGCL or the Certificate of Incorporation or the Bylaws; (iv) any action to interpret, apply, enforce or determine the validity of the Certificate of Incorporation or the Bylaws; or (v) any other action asserting a claim that is governed by the internal affairs doctrine, in all cases subject to the court having jurisdiction over indispensable parties named as defendants. This provision would not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or any other claim for which the U.S. federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction. The Bylaws further provide that, unless otherwise consented to by the Company in writing, the federal district courts of the United States will be the sole and exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the Securities Act.

Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any interest in our securities shall be deemed to have notice of and consented to this provision. This choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum of its choosing for disputes with the Company or any of our directors, officers, other employees or stockholders, which may discourage lawsuits with respect to such claims. There is uncertainty as to whether a court would enforce such provisions, and the enforceability of similar choice of forum provisions in other companies’ charter documents has been challenged in legal proceedings. It is possible that a court could find these types of provisions to be inapplicable or unenforceable, and if a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in the Bylaws to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

We do not expect to declare any dividends in the foreseeable future.

We do not anticipate declaring any cash dividends to holders of our Common Stock in the foreseeable future. Consequently, investors may need to rely on sales of their shares after price appreciation, which may never occur, as the only way to realize any future gains on their investment.

General Risk Factors

If we are unable to attract and retain key employees and qualified personnel, our ability to compete could be harmed.

Our success depends on our ability to attract and retain our executive officers, key employees and other qualified personnel, and our operations may be severely disrupted if we lost their services. As we build our brand and become more well known, there is increased risk that competitors or other companies will seek to hire our personnel. None of our employees are bound by a non-competition agreement. The failure to attract, integrate, train, motivate and retain these personnel could seriously harm our business and prospects.

In addition, we are highly dependent on the services of Jagdeep Singh, our Chief Executive Officer, and other senior technical and management personnel, including our executive officers, who would be difficult to replace. If Mr. Singh or other key personnel were to depart, we may not be able to successfully attract and retain senior leadership necessary to grow our business.

Our facilities or operations could be damaged or adversely affected as a result of natural disasters and other catastrophic events.

Our facilities or operations could be adversely affected by events outside of our control, such as natural disasters, wars, health epidemics such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and other calamities. We cannot assure you that any backup systems will be adequate to protect us from the effects of fire, floods, typhoons, earthquakes, power loss, telecommunications failures, break-ins, war, riots, terrorist attacks or similar events. Any of the foregoing events may give rise to interruptions, breakdowns, system failures, technology platform failures or internet failures, which could cause the loss or corruption of data or malfunctions of software or hardware as well as adversely affect our ability to provide services.

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Any financial or economic crisis, or perceived threat of such a crisis, including a significant decrease in consumer confidence, may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

In recent years, the United States and global economies suffered dramatic downturns as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, a deterioration in the credit markets and related financial crisis as well as a variety of other factors including, among other things, extreme volatility in security prices, severely diminished liquidity and credit availability, ratings downgrades of certain investments and declining valuations of others. The United States and certain foreign governments have taken unprecedented actions in an attempt to address and rectify these extreme market and economic conditions by providing liquidity and stability to the financial markets. If the actions taken by these governments are not successful, the return of adverse economic conditions may negatively impact the demand for our solid-state battery cells and may negatively impact our ability to raise capital, if needed, on a timely basis and on acceptable terms or at all.

Our results of operations and financial condition could be materially affected by the enactment of legislation implementing changes in the U.S. or foreign taxation of business activities or the adoption of other tax reform policies.

As we expand the scale of our business activities, any changes in the U.S. or foreign taxation of such activities may increase our worldwide effective tax rate and harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition. For example, recently, the Biden administration proposed to increase the U.S. corporate income tax rate from 21% to 28%, increase U.S. taxation of international business operations, and impose a global minimum tax. The impact of future changes to U.S. and foreign tax law on our business is uncertain and could be adverse, and we will continue to monitor and assess the impact of any such changes.

Our ability to utilize our net operating loss and tax credit carryforwards to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations.

In general, under Section 382 of the Code, a corporation that undergoes an “ownership change” is subject to limitations on its ability to use its pre-change net operating loss carryforwards (“NOLs”), to offset future taxable income. The limitations apply if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change,” which is generally defined as a greater than 50 percentage point change (by value) in its equity ownership by certain stockholders over a three-year period. If we have experienced an ownership change at any time since our incorporation, we may already be subject to limitations on our ability to utilize our existing NOLs and other tax attributes to offset taxable income or tax liability. In addition, future changes in our stock ownership, which may be outside of our control, may trigger an ownership change. Similar provisions of state tax law may also apply to limit our use of accumulated state tax attributes. As a result, even if we earn net taxable income in the future, our ability to use it or our pre-change NOL carryforwards and other tax attributes to offset such taxable income or tax liability may be subject to limitations, which could potentially result in increased future income tax liability to us.

There is also a risk that changes in law or regulatory changes made in response to the need for some jurisdictions to raise additional revenue to help counter the fiscal impact from the COVID-19 pandemic or for other unforeseen reasons, including suspensions on the use of net operating losses or tax credits, possibly with retroactive effect, may result in our existing net operating losses or tax credits expiring or otherwise being unavailable to offset future income tax liabilities. A temporary suspension of the use of certain net operating losses and tax credits has been enacted in California, and other states may enact suspensions as well.

Our insurance coverage may not be adequate to protect us from all business risks.

We may be subject, in the ordinary course of business, to losses resulting from products liability, accidents, acts of God, and other claims against us, for which we may have no insurance coverage. As a general matter, the policies that we do have may include significant deductibles or self-insured retentions, and we cannot be certain that our insurance coverage will be sufficient to cover all future losses or claims against us. A loss that is uninsured or which exceeds policy limits may require us to pay substantial amounts, which could adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.

We have incurred and will continue to incur significant increased expenses and administrative burdens as a public company, which could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In connection with the Closing, we listed our Class A Common on the NYSE under the symbol “QS”. We expect to face increased legal, accounting, administrative and other costs and expenses associated with corporate governance requirements that are applicable to us as a public company. If the NYSE delists our Class A Common Stock from trading on its exchange for failure to meet the listing standards and we are not able to list such securities on another national securities exchange, we expect such securities could be quoted on an over-the-counter market. If this were to occur, we and our stockholders could face significant material adverse consequences including:

•a limited availability of market quotations for our securities;

•reduced liquidity for our securities;

•a limited amount of news and analyst coverage; and

•a decreased ability to issue additional securities or obtain additional financing in the future.

In addition, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (the “Sarbanes-Oxley Act”), including the requirements of Section 404, as well as rules and regulations subsequently implemented by the SEC, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 and

35

the rules and regulations promulgated and to be promulgated thereunder, the PCAOB and the securities exchanges, impose additional reporting and other obligations on public companies. The development and implementation of the standards and controls necessary for us to achieve the level of accounting standards required of a public company in the United States may require costs greater than expected. It is possible that we will be required to expand our employee base and hire additional employees to support our operations as a public company which will increase our operating costs in future periods.

Compliance with public company requirements will continue to increase costs and make certain activities more time-consuming. For example, we have created new Board committees and adopted new internal controls and disclosure controls and procedures. In addition, expenses associated with SEC reporting requirements will be incurred. Furthermore, if any issues in complying with those requirements are identified, such as our restatement of our previously issued consolidated financial statements and related material weakness as described in this Report, we could incur additional costs rectifying those or new issues, and the existence of these issues could adversely affect our reputation or investor perceptions of it. It will also be more expensive to obtain director and officer liability insurance. Risks associated with our status as a public company may make it more difficult to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our Board or as executive officers. The additional reporting and other obligations imposed by these rules and regulations will increase legal and financial compliance costs and the costs of related legal, accounting and administrative activities. These increased costs will require us to divert a significant amount of money that could otherwise be used to expand the business and achieve strategic objectives. Advocacy efforts by stockholders and third parties may also prompt additional changes in governance and reporting requirements, which could further increase costs.

If we experience material weaknesses in the future or otherwise fail to maintain an effective system of internal controls in the future, our business could be adversely affected, and we may not be able to accurately report our financial condition or results of operations which may adversely affect investor confidence in us and, as a result, the value of our Class A Common Stock.

As a result of becoming a public company, we are required, under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, to furnish annual reports by management on, among other things, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. This assessment needs to include disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting. A material weakness is a deficiency or combination of deficiencies in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of a company’s annual and interim financial statements will not be detected or prevented on a timely basis. If we identify one or more material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, we will be unable to assert that our internal controls are effective. The effectiveness of our controls and procedures may be limited by a variety of factors, including:

•faulty human judgment and simple errors, omissions or mistakes;

•fraudulent action of an individual or collusion of two or more people;

•inappropriate management override of procedures; and

•the possibility that any enhancements to controls and procedures may still not be adequate to assure timely and accurate financial control.

Pursuant to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the rules and regulations promulgated by the SEC, we are required to furnish in this Report by our management regarding the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. The report includes, among other things, an assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of the end of our fiscal year, including a statement as to whether or not our internal control over financial reporting is effective. This assessment must include disclosure of any material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting identified by management. As of September 30, 2021, we remediated the material weakness that was identified in connection with the restatement of previously issued consolidated financial statements as of and for the period ended December 31, 2021. While we believe our internal control over financial reporting is currently effective, the effectiveness of our internal controls in future periods is subject to the risk that our controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions. Establishing, testing and maintaining an effective system of internal control over financial reporting requires significant resources and time commitments on the part of our management and our finance staff, may require additional staffing and infrastructure investments and would increase our costs of doing business.

In addition, under the federal securities laws, our auditors are required to express an opinion on the effectiveness of our internal controls. If we are unable to confirm that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, or if our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to express an opinion on the effectiveness of our internal controls, we could lose investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, which could cause the price of our Class A Common Stock to decline.

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Our disclosure controls and procedures may not prevent or detect all errors or acts of fraud.

We are subject to the periodic reporting requirements of the Exchange Act. We designed our disclosure controls and procedures to provide reasonable assurance that information we must disclose in reports we file or submit under the Exchange Act is accumulated, communicated to management, recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the rules and forms of the SEC. We believe that any disclosure controls and procedures, no matter how well-conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met.

These inherent limitations include the realities that judgments in decision-making can be faulty, and that breakdowns can occur because of simple error or mistake. Additionally, controls can be circumvented by the individual acts of some persons, by collusion of two or more people or by an unauthorized override of the controls. Accordingly, because of the inherent limitations in our control system, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish or cease publishing research or reports about us, our business, or the market in which we operate, or if they change their recommendations regarding our securities adversely, the price and trading volume of our securities could decline.

The trading market for our securities will be influenced by the research and reports that industry or securities analysts may publish about us, our business, market or competitors. Securities and industry analysts do not currently, and may never, publish research on us. If no securities or industry analysts commence coverage of us, our share price and trading volume would likely be negatively impacted. If any of the analysts who may cover us change their recommendation regarding our shares of Class A Common Stock adversely, or provide more favorable relative recommendations about our competitors, the price of our shares of Class A Common Stock would likely decline. If any analyst who may cover us were to cease our coverage of us or fail to regularly publish reports on it, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which in turn could cause our share price or trading volume to decline.

Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments.

None.

Item 2. Properties.

We are headquartered in San Jose, California. Our facilities, which are primarily in San Jose, California include various leased properties for our offices and engineering, research and development, and pre-pilot manufacturing activities.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings.

Information regarding legal proceedings is available in Note 8, Commitments and Contingencies, to the consolidated financial statements in this Report.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures.

Not applicable.

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PART II

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.

Market Information

Our Class A Common Stock is listed on NYSE under the symbol “QS”. Our Class B Common Stock is neither listed nor traded.

Holders

As of February 18, 2022, there were approximately 68 holders of record of our shares of Class A Common Stock and approximately 16 holders of record of our shares of Class B Common Stock. The actual number of stockholders of our common stock is greater than this number of record holders and includes stockholders who are beneficial owners but whose shares of common stock are held in street name by banks, brokers and other nominees.

Dividends

We have never declared or paid cash dividends on our common stock. We currently do not anticipate declaring any cash dividends to holders of our common stock in the foreseeable future.

Recent Sales of Unregistered Equity Securities

None.

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

None.

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Performance Graph

The following chart compares the changes in cumulative total return on our Class A Common Stock with the changes in cumulative total returns on the New York Stock Exchange Composite Index and the total returns on Russell 1000 Index for the period from November 27, 2020 (the first date our Class A Common Stock began trading on the NYSE) through December 31, 2021. The comparisons in this chart are required by the SEC and are not intended to forecast or be indicative of the possible future performance of our common stock.

 

Item 6. [Reserved]

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Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.

On November 25, 2020, Kensington acquired us. The Business Combination was accounted for as a reverse recapitalization in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Under this method of accounting, Kensington was treated as the “acquired” company for financial reporting purposes. Except as otherwise provided herein, our financial statement presentation includes (1) the results of Legacy QuantumScape and its consolidated subsidiaries as our accounting predecessor for periods prior to the completion of the Business Combination, and (2) the results of the Company (including the consolidation of Legacy QuantumScape and its subsidiaries) for periods after the completion of the Business Combination.

The following discussion and analysis should be read in conjunction with our audited consolidated financial statement the related notes appearing elsewhere in this Report. This discussion may contain forward-looking statements based upon current expectations that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth in the section titled “Risk Factors” as set forth in this Report. Unless the context otherwise requires, references in this “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” to “Legacy QuantumScape”, “the Company”, “we”, “us” and “our” refer to the business and operations of Legacy QuantumScape and its consolidated subsidiaries prior to the Business Combination and to QuantumScape Corporation and its consolidated subsidiaries, following the closing of the Business Combination.

Overview

We are developing next generation battery technology for EVs and other applications. We believe that our technology will enable a new category of battery that meets the requirements for broader market adoption. The lithium-metal solid-state battery technology that we are developing is being designed to offer greater energy density, longer life, faster charging, and greater safety when compared to today’s conventional lithium-ion batteries.

We are a development stage company with no revenue to date, have incurred a net loss from operations of approximately $215.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 and an accumulated deficit of approximately $2.0 billion from our inception through December 31, 2021. We expect to incur significant expenses and continuing losses for the foreseeable future.

Key Trends, Opportunities and Uncertainties

We are a pre-revenue company. We believe that our performance and future success depend on several factors that present significant opportunities for us but also pose significant risks and challenges, including those discussed below and in the section titled “Risk Factors” appearing elsewhere in this Report.

Product Development

We are developing our battery technology with the goal of enabling commercial production between 2024 and 2025. We have validated capabilities of our solid-state separator and battery technology in single-layer solid-state cells. We are now working to develop multi-layer cells, to validate the performance of these cells and to continue to improve yield and performance of our battery cells.

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We have described our research and development programs to make further improvements to our battery technology, including improvements to battery performance and cost under the “Research and Development” section in Item 1 above. Major remaining development activities include, but are not limited to:

•Multi-layering. We are working to continue increasing the number of layers in our cells. We have demonstrated capabilities of our solid-state separator and battery technology in single-layer, four-layer and 10-layer solid-state cells in commercially relevant areas (ranging from approximately 60x75mm to 70x85mm). In February 2022, we announced early cycling test results for 16-layer cells also in commercially relevant areas. In order to produce commercially-viable solid-state battery cells, we must produce battery cells with several dozens of layers, the exact number of which depends on our customers’ requirements. We will need to overcome the developmental challenges to increase the layer count and implement the appropriate cell design for our solid-state battery cell.

•Continued improvement in the quality of our solid-state separator. We are working to improve the quality and consistency of our solid-state separators, to further improve, among other things, the cycling behavior, power, operating conditions of our cells and to continue to reduce separator thickness.

•Improvement of our separator manufacturing process. We have selected a method of continuous processing found at scale in both the battery and ceramic industries and are working on continuous improvement of this process, including better consistency and higher throughput. Regarding consistency, tightening the variability of separator quality results in better yield. Regarding throughput, increasing the volume of separator production results in the increased quantities required for higher layer counts and delivery of more test cells to prospective customers. We are automating our manufacturing process and purchasing larger-scale manufacturing equipment. We will need to substantially improve our manufacturing processes to increase throughput required for higher layer counts and to achieve the cost, performance and volume levels required for commercial shipments.

•Continued improvement of the cathode. Our cathodes use a conventional cathode active material such as NMC mixed with a catholyte. We plan to benefit from industry cathode chemistry improvements and/or cost reduction, which in the future may include use of other cathode active materials, including cobalt-free compositions, including LFP, as well as cathode processing advances such as dry electrode processing. Over the years, we have developed catholytes made of differing mixtures of organic polymer and organic liquid electrolyte to optimize performance across multiple metrics such as voltage, temperature, power, and safety, among others. We continue to test solid, gel and liquid catholytes in our cells. The solid catholyte is part of our ongoing research and development investigation into inorganic catholytes. Our solid-state separator platform is being designed to enable high rates of charge and discharge for even thicker cathode electrodes, which when combined with a lithium-metal anode, may further increase cell energy densities.

Our team of over 500 scientists, engineers, technicians, and other staff is highly motivated and committed to solving these challenges ahead. However, any delays in the completion of these tasks will require additional cash use and delay market entry. As we grow our team, expand the size of our engineering line capacity, and build-out and bring up our QS-0 and QS-1, our rate of cash utilization will also increase significantly.

Process Development

Our architecture depends on our proprietary solid-state ceramic separator which we will manufacture ourselves. Though our separator’s design is unique, its manufacturing relies on well-established, high-volume production processes currently deployed globally in other industries at large scale.

The solid-state separator is being designed to enable our ‘anode-free’ architecture. As manufactured, our solid-state battery cell has no anode; the lithium-metal anode is formed during the first charge of the cell; 100% of the lithium that forms the anode comes from the cathode material we purchase. Eliminating the anode bill of materials and associated manufacturing costs found in conventional lithium-ion cells could result in a meaningful cost of goods sold advantage for us. In addition, our solid-state battery cell is being designed to reduce the time and capital-intensity of the formation process step as compared to conventional lithium-ion manufacturing.

We are focused on the continued expansion of the throughput and capability of our San Jose, California engineering line as well as the planning and setup of our QS-0 and planning for our QS-1. As part of the continued expansion of our throughput we are automating our manufacturing process and purchasing larger-scale battery-cell manufacturing equipment. We will need to substantially improve our battery cell manufacturing processes to increase throughput required for higher numbers of battery cells and to achieve the cost, performance and volume levels required for commercial shipments.

Continued expansion of the throughput and capability of our San Jose engineering line and QS-0 serves two purposes. First, the engineering line and QS-0 are intended to provide a sufficient quantity of solid-state separators and cells for internal development and for customer sampling. And second, our San Jose engineering line and QS-0 are intended to provide the basis for continued manufacturing process development and help inform tool selection and specifications for equipment for QS-1. Delays in the successful buildout of our San Jose engineering line and QS-0 may impact both our development and the QS-1 timelines.

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We will need to achieve significant cost savings in battery design and manufacturing, in addition to the cost savings associated with the elimination of an anode from our solid-state battery cells, while controlling costs associated with the manufacture of our solid-state separator, including achieving substantial improvements in throughput and yield required to hit commercial targets. Further, we will need to capture industry cost savings in the materials, components, equipment, and processes that we share, notably in the cathode, cell design, and factory.

Commercialization and Market Focus

As noted above, we will continue developing our battery technology with the goal of enabling customer prototype sampling in 2022, samples for use in test cars in 2023, and commercialization beginning between 2024 and 2025. We have demonstrated the performance capabilities of our solid-state separator and battery technology in single-layer, four-layer, and 10-layer solid-state cells and more recently announced early cycling test results of 16-layer solid-state cells, in each case in commercially relevant areas (ranging approximately from 60x75mm to 70x85mm). We will work to continue improving quality, consistency and throughput and optimize all components of the cell. We will continue to work to further develop and validate the volume manufacturing processes to enable high volume manufacturing and minimize manufacturing costs. The funds available to us will enable us to expand and accelerate research and development activities and undertake additional initiatives. Finally, we will continue to use and expand on our engineering line in San Jose to prepare for high volume manufacturing, to continue to order QS-0 equipment and prepare our QS-0, and to plan our QS-1 through our joint venture partnership with Volkswagen.

QS-1 to be built and run by QSV and the subsequent QS-1 Expansion, would represent a small fraction of Volkswagen’s demand for batteries and implies vehicle volumes under 2.5% of Volkswagen’s total production in 2021, assuming a 100kWh battery pack size. Our goal is to significantly expand the production capacity of the joint venture, in partnership with Volkswagen, to meet more of their projected demand. While we expect Volkswagen will be the first to commercialize vehicles using our battery technology, we intend to work closely with other automotive original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) to make our solid-state battery cells widely available over time. We recently signed an agreement with a second top ten (by global revenues) automotive OEM in which the OEM committed to collaborate with us to evaluate prototypes of our solid-state battery cells, and to purchase 10 MWh of capacity from QS-0 for inclusion in pre-series vehicles, subject to satisfactory validation of intermediate milestones. We are currently focused on automotive EV applications, which have the most stringent set of requirements for batteries. However, we recognize that our solid-state battery technology has applicability in other large and growing markets including stationary storage and consumer electronics such as smartphones and wearables and will explore opportunities in those areas as appropriate.

We believe that our technology enables a variety of business models. In addition to joint ventures, such as the one with Volkswagen, we may operate solely-owned manufacturing facilities or license our technology to other manufacturers. We intend to continue to invest in research and development to improve battery cell performance, improve manufacturing processes, and reduce cost.

Access to Capital

Following the Business Combination, the March 2021 Public Offering (See Note 10), and assuming we experience no significant delays in the research and development of our solid-state battery cells, we believe that our cash resources are sufficient to fund QS-0 expenses and the initial setup of the QS-1 production facilities. However, any delays could materially impact us.

Regulatory Landscape

We operate in an industry that is subject to many established environmental regulations, which have generally become more stringent over time, particularly in hazardous waste generation and disposal and pollution control. Regulations in our target markets include economic incentives to purchasers of EVs, tax credits for EV manufacturers, and economic penalties that may apply to a car manufacturer based on its fleet-wide emissions which may indirectly benefit us in that the regulations will expand the market size of EVs. While we expect environmental regulations to provide a tailwind to our growth, it is possible for certain regulations to result in margin pressures. Trade restrictions and tariffs, while historically minimal between the European Union and the United States where most of our production and sales are expected, are subject to unknown and unpredictable change that could impact our ability to meet projected sales or margins.

Basis of Presentation

We currently conduct our business through one operating segment. As a pre-revenue company with no commercial operations, our activities to date have been limited and were conducted primarily in the United States. Our historical results are reported under U.S. GAAP and in U.S. dollars. Upon commencement of commercial operations, we expect to expand our global operations substantially, including in the United States and the European Union, and as a result we expect our future results to be sensitive to foreign currency transaction and translation risks and other financial risks that are not reflected in our historical financial statements. As a result, we expect that the financial results we report for periods after we begin commercial operations will not be comparable to the financial results included in this Report.

Components of Results of Operations

We are a research and development stage company and we have not generated any revenues to date. Our historical results may not be indicative of our future results for reasons that may be difficult to anticipate. Accordingly, the drivers of our future financial results, as well as the components of such results, may not be comparable to our historical or projected results of operations.

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Operating Expenses

Research and Development Expense

To date, our research and development expenses have consisted primarily of personnel-related expenses for scientists, experienced engineers and technicians as well as costs associated with the expansion and ramp up of our engineering and QS-0 facilities in San Jose, including the material and supplies to support the product development and process engineering efforts. As we ramp up our engineering operations to complete the development of our solid-state, lithium-metal batteries and required process engineering to meet automotive cost targets, we anticipate that research and development expenses will increase significantly for the foreseeable future as we expand our hiring of scientists, engineers, and technicians and continue to invest in additional plant and equipment for product development (e.g. multi-layer cell stacking, packaging engineering), building prototypes, and testing of battery cells as our team works to meet the full set of automotive product requirements. We also recognized significant non-cash stock-based compensation to employees directly involved in research and development activities. For stock-based compensation awards with performance and market conditions, such as the awards granted under our Extraordinary Performance Award Program (the “EPA Program”) in December 2021, the non-cash expense recognized is based on a probability assessment of the performance conditions, and as such, we expect research and development expenses to fluctuate in the future as the performance conditions are re-assessed at each reporting period. Further, should the stated market conditions of the EPA Program grants be achieved prior to the expected achievement period, we would accelerate the stock-based compensation expense recognized, which could result in significant fluctuations in research and development expense recognized in the future. For more information on the EPA Program and grants thereunder, see Note 10 to our audited consolidated financial statements elsewhere in this Report.

As we ramp up towards commercial manufacturing operations, we will begin to incur expenses that are directly associated with manufacturing, including allocation of indirect costs from research and development.

General and Administrative Expense

General and administrative expenses consist mainly of personnel-related expenses for our executive, sales and marketing and other administrative functions and expenses for director and officer insurance and outside professional services, including legal, accounting and other advisory services. We are rapidly expanding our personnel headcount and supporting systems, in anticipation of planning for and supporting the ramping up of commercial manufacturing operations and being a public company. Accordingly, we expect our general and administrative expenses to increase significantly in the near term and for the foreseeable future. Upon commencement of commercial operations, we also expect general and administrative expenses to include customer and sales support and advertising costs. We also recognize significant non-cash stock-based compensation to executives and certain employees. The non-cash expense recognized for EPA Program grants is based on a probability assessment of the performance conditions, and as such, we expect general and administrative expenses to fluctuate in the future as the performance conditions are re-assessed at each reporting period. Further, should the stated market conditions of the EPA Program awards be achieved prior to the expected achievement period, we would accelerate the stock-based compensation expense recognized, which could result in significant fluctuations in general and administrative expense recognized in the future.

As we ramp up towards commercial manufacturing operations, we will begin to incur expenses that are directly associated with manufacturing, including allocation of indirect costs from general and administrative activities.

Other Income (Expense)

Change in Fair Value of Assumed Common Stock Warrant Liability

The change in fair value of Assumed Common Stock Warrant liabilities consists of the change in non-cash fair value of the Public Warrants and the private placement warrants assumed in connection with the Business Combination (the "Private Placement Warrants"). As all Assumed Common Stock Warrants were exercised or redeemed as of December 31, 2021, there was no remaining liability for Assumed Common Stock Warrants.

Change in Fair Value of Series F Convertible Preferred Stock Tranche Liability

A portion of the Series F convertible preferred stock tranche liabilities (as defined below) were settled upon the issuance of the shares of Series F Preferred Stock concurrent with the Business Combination, and the remaining commitment to issues shares of Class A Common Stock pursuant to the Series F Stock Purchase Agreements became equity classified upon the consummation of the Business Combination. Accordingly, we have not incurred incremental fair value adjustments related to the Series F convertible preferred stock tranche liabilities subsequent to November 2020.

Interest Expense

Interest expense consists primarily of interest expense associated with our QS-0 facility lease and includes expense related to fair value adjustments for convertible preferred stock warrants prior to the Business Combination. Concurrent with the Business Combination, the Legacy QuantumScape convertible preferred stock warrants became equity classified. Accordingly, we have not incurred incremental fair value adjustments related to the Legacy QuantumScape convertible preferred stock warrants subsequent to November 2020.

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Interest Income

Interest income consists primarily of interest income from marketable securities.

Other Income (Expense)

Our other income (expense) consists of miscellaneous income and expenses such as the gain on the disposal of fixed assets, sublease income and receipt for a legal settlement.

Income Tax Expense / Benefit

Our income tax provision consists of an estimate for U.S. federal and state income taxes based on enacted rates, as adjusted for allowable credits, deductions, uncertain tax positions, changes in deferred tax assets and liabilities, and changes in the tax law. We maintain a valuation allowance against the full value of our U.S. and state net deferred tax assets because we believe the recoverability of the tax assets is not more likely than not.

Results of Operations

In this section, we discuss the results of our operations for the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the year ended December 31, 2020. For a discussion of the year ended December 31, 2020 and the year ended December 31, 2019, please refer to Part II, Item 7, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K/A (Amendment No. 2) for the year ended December 31, 2020.

The following table sets forth our historical operating results for the periods indicated (amounts in thousands):

	Year Ended December 31,									2021 vs. 2020						2020 vs. 2019
	2021			2020			2019			$ Change			% Change			$ Change			% Change
Operating expenses:
Research and development	$	151,496		$	65,103		$	45,944		$	86,393			133	%	$	19,159			42	%
General and administrative		63,770			15,918			9,874			47,852			301	%		6,044			61	%
Total operating expenses		215,266			81,021			55,818			134,245			166	%		25,203			45	%
Loss from operations		(215,266	)		(81,021	)		(55,818	)		(134,245	)		166	%		(25,203	)		45	%
Other (expense) income:
Interest expense		(1,419	)		(20,765	)		(94	)		19,346			(93	)%		(20,671	)		21990	%
Interest income		1,883			1,093			3,608			790			72	%		(2,515	)		(70	)%
Change in fair value of Series F convertible preferred stock tranche liabilities		—			(999,987	)		—			999,987			(100	)%		(999,987	)		100	%
Change in fair value of assumed common stock warrant liabilities		168,674			(581,863	)		—			750,537			(129	)%		(581,863	)		100	%
Other income		151			760			1,041			(609	)		(80	)%		(281	)		(27	)%
Total other (expense) income:		169,289			(1,600,762	)		4,555			1,770,051			(111	)%		(1,605,317	)		(35243	)%
Net loss		(45,977	)		(1,681,783	)		(51,263	)		1,635,806			(97	)%		(1,630,520	)		3181	%
Less: Net (loss) income attributable to non-controlling interest		(11	)		(6	)		20			(5	)		83	%		(26	)		(130	)%
Net loss attributable to common stockholders	$	(45,966	)	$	(1,681,777	)	$	(51,283	)	$	1,635,811			(97	)%	$	(1,630,494	)		3179	%

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Research and Development

The increase in research and development expense in the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the year ended December 31, 2020 primarily resulted from the $35.7 million increase in personnel cost due to the growth in research and development headcount to support technology development, an increase of $11.8 million in material supplies and equipment maintenance to support the increase of research and development cell builds in our commercial form factor, an increase of $6.1 million related to depreciation and amortization, a $6.8 million increase in facility expenses and a $6.2 million increase in professional fees, outside services and administrative expenses related to the growth in research and development. Additionally, non-cash stock-based compensation expense increased by $19.8 million from $9.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2020 to $29.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 primarily due to the effect of RSUs granted in the second half of fiscal 2020 and in fiscal 2021. Non-cash stock-based compensation expense for the year ended December 31, 2021 includes $0.8 million related to EPA Program grants.

General and Administrative

The increase in general and administrative expenses in the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the year ended December 31, 2020 primarily resulted from the $15.5 million increase in professional fees and other corporate expenses due to costs associated with becoming a public company and business growth, an increase of $10.4 million in personnel costs due to the headcount increase to support business growth and an increase of $6.6 million in director and officer insurance expenses. Additionally, non-cash stock-based compensation expense increased by $15.4 million, from $7.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2020 to $22.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2021 primarily due to the effect of RSUs granted in the second half of fiscal 2020 and in fiscal 2021. Non-cash stock-based compensation expense for the year ended December 31, 2021 included $1.6 million related to EPA Program grants.

Interest Expense

Interest expense during the year ended December 31, 2021 was due to the interest expense associated with a finance lease, which commenced during that year.

Interest expense during the year ended December 31, 2020 primarily represented the non-cash fair value adjustment of Legacy QuantumScape convertible preferred stock warrants. Prior to the Business Combination, the warrants were considered free standing financial instruments and were subject to fair value measurement at issuance and at each reporting period. In connection with the Business Combination, the fair value of the warrants to purchase shares of our preferred stock were adjusted based on the fair value of the underlying common stock. The warrant liability was reclassified to additional paid-in capital and there was no further re-measurement of these warrants subsequent to the Business Combination.

Interest Income

The increase in interest income during the year ended December 31, 2021 compared to the year ended December 31, 2020 was due to an increase in investments in marketable securities.

Change in Fair value of Series F Convertible Preferred Stock Tranche Liability

The change in fair value of Series F convertible preferred stock tranche liabilities for the year ended December 31, 2020 consisted of the non-cash fair value adjustment of the preferred stock tranche liabilities. In May 2020 and August 2020, we committed to sell, and investors committed to buy, Series F redeemable convertible preferred stock totaling up to $388.0 million in gross proceeds. Approximately $188.0 million closed in connection with the Business Combination and $100.0 million closed on December 1, 2020. An additional $100.0 million closed in 2021.

Prior to the Business Combination, the commitments were considered free standing financial instruments and were classified as liabilities and subject to fair value measurement at issuance and at each reporting period. Concurrent with the Business Combination, the entire commitment was adjusted based on the fair value of the underlying common stock and a portion of the Series F convertible preferred stock tranche liabilities were settled upon the issuance of the shares of Series F Preferred Stock. Additionally, the remaining commitment to issues shares of Class A Common Stock pursuant to the Series F Stock Purchase Agreements became equity classified and were reclassified to additional paid-in capital, with no further remeasurement required.

Change in Fair value of Assumed Common Stock Warrant Liability

The change in fair value of Assumed Common Stock Warrant liabilities was due to the change in the estimated non-cash fair value of the Public and Private Placement Warrants we assumed in connection with the Business Combination, at the end of each reporting period or through the exercise or redemption of the warrants.

The changes in fair value of Assumed Common Stock Warrant liabilities during the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 were due to the changes in the fair value of the Public Warrants and Private Placement Warrants subsequent to the Business Combination. As all Assumed Common Stock Warrants were exercised or redeemed as of December 31, 2021, there was no remaining liability for Assumed Common Stock Warrants.

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Other Income

Other income for the year ended December 31, 2021 consisted of the gain on the disposal of fixed assets and foreign currency exchange gain. Other income for the year ended December 31, 2020 consisted of the receipt for a legal settlement.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

As of December 31, 2021, our principal sources of liquidity were our cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities in the amount of approximately $1.4 billion. Our cash equivalents are invested in U.S. money market funds, U.S. Treasury bonds and commercial paper. Our marketable securities are invested in U.S. Treasury notes and bonds, commercial paper, and corporate notes and bonds.

We have yet to generate any revenue from our business operations. To date, we have funded our capital expenditure and working capital requirements through equity as further discussed below. Our ability to successfully develop our products, commence commercial operations and expand our business will depend on many factors, including our working capital needs, the availability of equity or debt financing and, over time, our ability to generate cash flows from operations.

Prior to the Business Combination, we financed our operations primarily from the sales of redeemable convertible preferred stock. In connection with the Business Combination, we received net cash proceeds of approximately $676.9 million. Additionally, after the Business Combination, during the year ended December 31, 2020, we received proceeds of approximately $99.8 million from the Series F Preferred Stock Purchase Agreements.

During the year ended December 31, 2021, we completed the March 2021 Public Offering for aggregate net cash proceeds of $462.9 million. In April 2021, we received $100 million from VGA pursuant to our achievement of the technical milestone specified in the Series F Preferred Stock Purchase Agreements. Also, during the year ended December 31, 2021, all Assumed Common Stock Warrants were exercised or redeemed and we received net proceeds of $151.4 million.

We believe that our cash on hand will be sufficient to meet our working capital and capital expenditure requirements for a period of at least twelve months from the date of this Report. We believe it is also sufficient to fund QS-0 expenses, and our initial start of QS-1 production. We may, however, need additional cash resources due to changed business conditions or other developments, including unanticipated delays in negotiations with automotive OEMs and tier-one automotive suppliers or other suppliers, supply chain challenges, disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, competitive pressures, and regulatory developments, among others. To the extent that our current resources are insufficient to satisfy our cash requirements, we may need to seek additional equity or debt financing. If such financing is not available, or if the financing terms are less desirable than we expect, we may be forced to decrease our level of investment in product development or scale back our operations, which could have an adverse impact on our business and financial prospects.

Cash Flows and Material Cash Requirements

The following table provides a summary of our cash flow data for the periods indicated (amounts in thousands):

	Year Ended December 31,
	2021			2020			2019
Net cash used in operating activities	$	(127,909	)	$	(61,263	)	$	(41,731	)
Net cash (used in) provided by investing activities		(385,834	)		(802,648	)		33,301
Net cash provided by financing activities		736,557			953,724			394

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Cash Flows from Operating Activities

Our cash flows used in operating activities to date have been primarily driven by the growth in our underlying business to support the research and development of our battery technology. Such cash flows primarily have been comprised of payroll, material and supplies, facilities expense, and professional service related to research and development and general and administrative activities. As we continue to ramp up hiring for technical headcounts to accelerate our engineering efforts ahead of starting the pre-pilot and pilot line operations, we expect our cash used in operating activities to increase significantly before we start to generate any material cash flows from our business. Operating lease commitments as of December 31, 2021, will result in cash payments of $3.4 million for 2022 and $50.7 million for 2023 and thereafter. These operating lease commitments are primarily related to our facilities in San Jose, including a new lease that commenced in November 2021. In November 2021, we also entered into lease agreements for additional premises adjacent to the QS-0 site, which will commence in 2022. These leases are expected to result in future cash payments of approximately $38.6 million over respective 10-year terms. As we complete the development of our solid-state, lithium-metal batteries and required process engineering to meet automotive cost targets, we anticipate that research and development operating expenses will increase significantly for the foreseeable future.

Cash used during the year ended December 31, 2021 was primarily driven by a net loss of $46.0 million adjusted by non-cash income of $168.7 million related to the change in fair value of Assumed Common Stock Warrant liabilities and offset by non-cash expenses including $52.2 million related to stock-based compensation, $11.8 million related to amortization of premiums and accretion of discounts on marketable securities, and $11.2 million related to depreciation and amortization. This was partially offset by an increase of $13.2 million in accrued compensation, accounts payable and accrued liabilities due to spending in materials and supplies, professional services, personnel and general and administrative to support the growth of the business, especially in the research and development of our battery technology.

Cash used during the year ended December 31, 2020 was primarily driven by a net loss of $1,681.8 million, offset by non-cash expenses including $581.9 million for the change in fair value of the Assumed Common Stock Warrants, $20.8 million for the change in the fair value of Legacy QuantumScape convertible preferred stock warrants, $999.9 million for the issuance and change in the fair value of the Series F convertible preferred stock tranche liabilities, $17.0 million related to stock based compensation and $7.5 million related to depreciation and amortization.

Cash used during the year ended December 31, 2019 was primarily driven by a net loss of $51.3 million, offset by non-cash expenses including $5.6 million related to depreciation and amortization and $6.8 million related to stock-based compensation.

Cash Flows from Investing Activities

Our cash flows from investing activities to date have been comprised of purchases of property and equipment and purchases, maturities and sales of our marketable securities. We expect the level of capital investment to increase substantially in the near future as we fully build out our engineering lines as well as acquire the property and equipment for QS-0.

Cash used in investing activities for the year ended December 31, 2021 primarily consisted of $127.2 million for various equipment purchases to primarily support our research and development activities and $1.4 billion for the purchase of marketable securities, offset in part by the proceeds received from the maturity and sale of marketable securities of $894.2 million and $224.1 million, respectively.

Cash used in investing activities for the year ended December 31, 2020 primarily consisted of $24.1 million for various equipment purchases and $891.6 million for the purchase of marketable securities, offset in part by the proceeds received from the maturity of marketable securities of $99.0 million and the sales of marketable securities of $14.0 million.

Cash provided by investing activities for the year ended December 31, 2019 primarily consisted of proceeds received from the maturities of marketable securities of $239.5 million, offset in part by cash used for equipment purchases of $9.8 million and $196.4 million used for the purchase of marketable securities.

Cash Flows from Financing Activities

Our cash flows from financing activities primarily consist of proceeds from the sales of equity securities and, subsequent to the Business Combination, include the proceeds received from the exercise of the Assumed Common Stock Warrants.

As of December 31, 2021, the lease commitment for QS-0 is a finance lease commitment. As such, the net cash payments for this commitment is classified as a financing activity on our cash flows. Our future obligations under this finance lease will result in net cash payments of $2.4 million for 2022 and payments of $53.2 million for 2023 and thereafter.

The cash provided by financing activities during the year ended December 31, 2021 was primarily due to $462.9 million in net proceeds received from the March 2021 Public Offering, $151.4 million received from the exercise of Public Warrants and Private Placement Warrants, $99.9 million in net proceeds received from the Series F Preferred Stock Agreements, and approximately $17.8 million received from the exercise of stock options and our employee stock purchase plan.

The cash provided by financing activities during the year ended December 31, 2020 was primarily due to $676.9 million in net proceeds received from the Business Combination and related PIPE financing, as well as $276.3 million in net proceeds received from the Legacy QuantumScape Series F Preferred Stock agreements discussed above.

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The cash provided by financing activities during the year ended December 31, 2019 was primarily due to proceeds received from the exercise of stock options.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

We are not a party to any off-balance sheet arrangements, as defined under SEC rules.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

Our financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. In the preparation of these financial statements, we are required to use judgment in making estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities as of the date of the financial statements, as well as the reported expenses incurred during the reporting periods.

We consider an accounting judgment, estimate or assumption to be critical when (1) the estimate or assumption is complex in nature or requires a high degree of judgment and (2) the use of different judgments, estimates and assumptions could have a material impact on the consolidated financial statements. Our significant accounting policies are described in Note 2 to our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Report. We believe that the following accounting estimates are the most critical to fully understand and evaluate our reported financial results, as they require our most subjective or complex management judgments, resulting from the need to make estimates about the effect of matters that are inherently uncertain and unpredictable.

Stock-Based Compensation

The share-based awards under our equity plans include stock options, RSU and performance-based awards under the EPA Program. We recognize the cost of share-based awards granted to employees and directors based on the estimated grant-date fair value of the awards. Cost is recognized on a straight-line basis over the service period, which is generally the vesting period of the award. We reverse previously recognized costs for unvested awards in the period that forfeitures occur.

The fair value of RSUs is measured on the grant date based on the closing fair market value of our common stock.

The fair values of options granted with performance (e.g. business milestone) and market conditions (e.g. stock price target) are estimated at the grant date using a Monte Carlo simulation model. The model determined the grant date fair value of each vesting tranche and the future time when the market condition for such tranche is expected to be achieved. The Monte Carlo valuation requires the Company to make assumptions and judgements about the variables used in the calculation including the expected term, volatility of our common stock, an assumed risk-free interest rate, and cost of equity.

For performance-based awards with a vesting schedule based entirely on the attainment of both performance and market conditions, each quarter the Company assesses whether it is probable that it will achieve each performance condition that has not previously been achieved or deemed probable of achievement and if so, the future time when the Company expects to achieve that business milestone, or its “expected business milestone achievement time.” When the Company first determines that a business milestone has become probable of being achieved, the Company allocates the entire expense for the related tranche over the number of quarters between the grant date and the then-applicable “expected vesting date.” The “expected vesting date” at any given time is generally the later of (i) the expected time when the performance condition will be achieved (if the related performance condition has not yet been achieved) and (ii) the expected time when the market condition will be achieved (if the related market condition has not yet been achieved). The Company immediately recognizes a cumulative catch-up expense for all accumulated expense for the quarters from the grant date through the quarter in which the performance condition was first deemed probable of being achieved. Each quarter thereafter, the Company recognizes the prorated portion of the then-remaining expense for the tranche based on the number of quarters between such quarter and the then-applicable expected vesting date, except that upon vesting of a tranche, all remaining expense for that tranche is immediately recognized. The Company accounts for forfeitures when they occur. The fair value of such awards is estimated on the grant date using Monte Carlo simulations, which is impacted by the following assumptions:

•Expected Term—We estimated the expected term based on the midpoint between the time of vesting and the remaining time to expiration.

•Expected Volatility—Given the limited market trading history of our common stock, volatility is based on a weighted blend of (i) the average volatility of peer companies within the automotive and energy storage industries multiplied by a ratio of our volatility based on available stock price data as compared to the average volatility of our peer companies over the same period and (ii) our implied volatility from exchange traded options.

•Cost of Equity—Cost of equity is calculated using (i) risk-free rate, (ii) average peer group market beta and (iii) the market-risk premium.

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As the stock-based compensation expense is based on the probability assessment of the performance conditions, we may experience significant fluctuation in the non-cash stock-based compensation recognized quarter over quarter. Although the potential stock-based compensation expense that may be recognized over the remaining term of the performance award may be estimated at each of the applicable grant date and the amount is expected to be material to the financial statements in the aggregate, the actual expense recognized may range from zero to the maximum; the actual expense may be recognized over a period less than the remaining term of the performance award; and the amount recognized quarter over quarter is expected to be material and may significantly fluctuate.

Assumed Common Stock Warrant Liabilities

The Company assumed 11,499,989 Public Warrants and 6,650,000 Private Placement Warrants upon the Business Combination, all of which were issued in connection with Kensington’s initial public offering (other than 75,000 Private Placement Warrants that were issued in connection with the closing of the Business Combination, which are referred to as the Working Capital Warrants) and entitled each holder to purchase one share of Class A Common Stock at an exercise price of $11.50 per share. The Public Warrants were publicly traded and were exercisable for cash unless certain conditions occurred, such as the failure to have an effective registration statement related to the shares issuable upon exercise or redemption by the Company under certain conditions, at which time the warrants could be cashless exercised. The Private Placement Warrants were transferable, assignable or salable in certain limited exceptions. The Private Placement Warrants were exercisable for cash or on a cashless basis, at the holder’s option, and were non-redeemable until September 28, 2021 so long as they were held by the initial purchasers or their permitted transferees. If the Private Placement Warrants were held by someone other than the initial purchasers or their permitted transferees, the Private Placement Warrants would have ceased to be Private Placement Warrants, and would have become Public Warrants and would be redeemable by the Company and exercisable by such holders on the same basis as the other Public Warrants.

The Company evaluated the Assumed Common Stock Warrants under ASC 815-40, Derivatives and Hedging—Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity, and concluded they did not meet the criteria to be classified in stockholders’ equity. Specifically, the exercise of the Assumed Common Stock Warrants could have been settled in cash upon the occurrence of a tender offer or exchange that involves 50% or more of our Class A stockholders. Because not all of the voting stockholders need to participate in such tender offer or exchange to trigger the potential cash settlement and the Company does not control the occurrence of such an event, the Company concluded that the Assumed Common Stock Warrants did not meet the conditions to be classified in equity. Since the Assumed Common Stock Warrants meet the definition of a derivative under ASC 815, the Company recorded these warrants as liabilities on the Consolidated Balance Sheet at fair value, with subsequent changes in their respective fair values recognized in the Change in fair value of assumed common stock warrant liabilities within the Consolidated Statement of Operations and Comprehensive Income (Loss) at each reporting date prior to exercise or redemption. The Public Warrants were publicly traded and thus had an observable market price to estimate fair value, and the Private Placement Warrants were effectively valued similar to the Public Warrants when the Public Warrants were publicly traded, and consistent with the intrinsic value of the Company's common stock subsequent to the redemption of the Public Warrants, as described in Note 5 to the consolidated financial statements. As all Assumed Common Stock Warrants were exercised or redeemed during the year ended December 31, 2021, there was no remaining liability for Assumed Common Stock Warrants as of December 31, 2021.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See Note 3 to the audited consolidated financial statements in this Report for more information about recent accounting pronouncements, the timing of their adoption, and our, to the extent it has made one, of their potential impact on our financial condition and its results of operations and cash flows.

Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk.

We are exposed to a variety of markets and other risks including the effects of change in interest rates, inflation and foreign currency translation and transaction risks as well as risks to the availability of funding sources, hazard events and specific asset risks.

Interest Rate Risk

The market interest risk in our financial instruments and our financial positions represents the potential loss arising from adverse changes in interest rates. As of December 31, 2021, we had cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities of $1.4 billion, consisting of interest-bearing money market accounts and marketable securities, for which the fair market value would be affected by change in the general level of U.S. interest rates. As of December 31, 2021, an immediate increase of 100 basis points in interest rates would have resulted in a decline in the fair value of our marketable securities of approximately $11.5 million. This estimate is based on a sensitivity model that measures market value changes when changes in interest rates occur. Such losses would only be realized if we sold the investments prior to maturity.

Foreign Currency Risk

Our functional currency is the U.S. dollar, while certain of our current and future subsidiaries may have other functional currencies, reflecting their principal operating markets. Once we commence QS-1 operations, we expect to be exposed to both currency transaction and translation risk. To date, we have not had material exposure to foreign currency fluctuations and have not hedged such exposure, although we may do so in the future.

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Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.

INDEX TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm (PCAOB ID No. 42)	51
Consolidated Balance Sheets as of December 31, 2021 and 2020	54
Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss for the Years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019	55
Consolidated Statements of Redeemable Non-Controlling Interest and Stockholders’ Equity for the Years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019	56
Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows for the Years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019	57
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements	59

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Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors of QuantumScape Corporation

Opinion on the Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of QuantumScape Corporation (the Company) as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, the related consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss, redeemable non-controlling interest and stockholders' equity and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2021, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company at December 31, 2021 and 2020, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2021, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021, based on criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework) and our report dated February 28, 2022 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.

Basis for Opinion

These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Critical Audit Matter

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of the critical audit matter does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.

Accounting for the Extraordinary Performance Program (EPA program) – stock-based compensation

Description of the Matter As discussed in Notes 2 and 10 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company granted stock options of the Company’s Class A common stock to the Chief Executive Officer and other members of the Company’s management team pursuant to the Extraordinary Performance Award Program “EPA Program” in December 2021. The options vest upon the achievement of performance (business milestones) and market (stock price target) conditions under five tranches. A Monte-Carlo valuation model was used to determine the grant date fair value and the expected vesting date. When the Company determines achievement of the related performance condition is considered probable then the stock-based compensation expense is recognized over the expected vesting period which is the longer of the time to achieve the performance or market condition for each tranche. The Company recorded stock-based compensation expense of $2.4 million during the year-ended December 31, 2021 and had $117.2 million of unrecognized stock-based compensation expense as of December 31, 2021 for the tranches that were considered probable.   Auditing the Company’s accounting for option awards under the EPA program is complex and judgmental due to the complex valuation methodologies used in estimating the grant date fair value and expected vesting date and the subjectivity of management’s assessment of the probability of performance conditions being met for each tranche of the award.

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How we Addressed the Matter in Our Audit   We obtained an understanding, evaluated the design, and tested the operating effectiveness of controls over the Company’s accounting for awards granted under the EPA Program, including management’s review of the valuation methodology used to calculate the grant date fair value and expected vesting date and management’s assessment of the probability of performance conditions being met.   Our substantive audit procedures included, among others, involving our internal valuation specialists to perform an independent, corroborative Monte-Carlo valuation and evaluating the methodology utilized by the Company to calculate the grant date fair value and expected vesting date. Further, we evaluated the judgments made by management in determining the estimated probability of each performance condition by discussing status with internal operational personnel and comparing the achievement of the business milestones to the Company’s annual plan.  

/s/ Ernst & Young LLP

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2012.

Redwood City, California

February 28, 2022

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Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors of QuantumScape Corporation

Opinion on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

We have audited QuantumScape Corporation’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021, based on criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework) (the COSO criteria). In our opinion, QuantumScape Corporation (the Company) maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2021, based on the COSO criteria.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the 2021 consolidated financial statements of the Company and our report dated February 28, 2022 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.

Basis for Opinion

The Company’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting included in the accompanying Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.

Our audit included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk, and performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Definition and Limitations of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

/s/ Ernst & Young LLP

Redwood City, California

February 28, 2022

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QuantumScape Corporation

Consolidated Balance Sheets

(In Thousands, Except per Share Amounts)

	December 31,
	2021		2020
Assets
Current assets
Cash and cash equivalents ($3,382 and $3,406 as of December 31, 2021 and 2020, respectively, for joint venture)	$	320,700	$	113,216
Marketable securities		1,126,975		884,336
Prepaid expenses and other current assets		15,757		11,616
Total current assets		1,463,432		1,009,168
Property and equipment, net		166,183		43,696
Right-of-use assets - finance lease		30,886		—
Right-of-use assets- operating lease		36,913		11,712
Other assets		18,234		2,193
Total assets	$	1,715,648	$	1,066,769
Liabilities, redeemable non-controlling interest and stockholders’ equity
Current liabilities
Accounts payable	$	14,182