$QS Reverse-Engineering QuantumScape's OEM List, and Why the Data Keeps Pointing at $TSLA Tesla, Nissan, and $F Ford
Yesterday, QuantumScape ($QS) confirmed a multi-year joint agreement with $HMC Honda R&D covering both solid-state research and manufacturing, following Honda's completion of a technology evaluation that QS's CEO called one of the most rigorous assessments of its technology to date. That's the second major OEM after Volkswagen.
Here's the part worth sitting with: the geolocation data called Honda well before the press release. A while back, a redditor pulled mobile ad ID (MAID) data to map foot-traffic between QuantumScape's facility and OEM R&D sites, basically legal espionage, believe it or not! Honda R&D Palo Alto lit up as one of the strongest bi-directional signals in the set (4.71). Yesterday it became official.
So the method just got validated. VW was always public knowledge; Honda was not, until recently, though many of us found obvious clues (like the fact that Honda needed a ceramic separator process and they were stuck on it). That track record is the reason to take the rest of the list seriously.
Confirmed:
VW Group ($VWAGY) ✅
Honda ($HMC) ✅ (new, as of yesterday)
Here's where the same data plus public breadcrumbs point next.
Nissan ($NSANY). Spotted at the Eagle Line event and featured in shareholder materials, with a strong engagement correlation in the geolocation set (Nissan R&D Palo Alto to QS Factory, score 2.11). High confidence. Remember, Nissan is platform sharing so we are talking about Renault–Nissan (Infiniti)–Mitsubishi brands also.
Tesla ($TSLA). This is the one that lights up. Tesla HQ is the single strongest connection in the entire dataset (8.34), with Tesla Kato Road adding a second bi-directional signal (2.37). Tesla co-founder JB Straubel sits on the board, now on the strategic board. Tesla is very likely the "pure-play" EV OEM working with QS.
Ford ($F). The most likely other OEM. The Ford and Solid Power ($SLDP) JDA has been wound down. Solid Power's 2025 10-K states that, effective Dec 31, 2025, the companies amended the JDA "in connection with the winding up" of their cell-development work and extended it only through March 31, 2026. A freed-up Ford plus a 6.55 bi-directional geolocation score with QS (strong in both directions) is hard to ignore. Ford clearly does not see future value in Solid Power's SSB technology, which is well known to be inferior to QS's.
Wild card: Rivian ($RIVN). Closely aligned with VW Group, which holds a direct equity stake in Rivian and has committed up to $5.8 billion through 2027, including a 50/50 joint venture, Rivian and VW Group Technology. That JV is built around software and zonal electrical architecture rather than batteries, so a QS-to-Rivian battery path would be a separate step, but the depth of VW's involvement is why Rivian stays on the radar at all. The base case is that QS could reach Rivian via the VW vector regardless, though the data leans Tesla as the standalone EV name here, not Rivian.
One more data point, and it comes from Factorial's own lead OEM (thanks to @Defiantclient2 for finding it). Mercedes-Benz's infographic for the 1,205 km Stuttgart-to-Malmö drive lists a pneumatic cell support system holding a constant 28 bar as a feature of the Factorial-cell EQS ($FAC). An active pressurized-air system at a constant 28 bar is not something you fit into a motorcycle or a cost-sensitive mass-market pack. Contrast that with QuantumScape, which ran its anode-free QSE-5 cells in a Ducati V21L at IAA Munich, a bike with no room for a pneumatic rig, precisely because its ceramic separator is built to operate at comparatively low external pressure. All roads keep confirming what the thesis laid out a long time ago.
If I'm wrong, I'll own it. But this looks like the OEM list.
I've NEVER BEEN MORE BULLISH $QS 🚀🚀🚀🚀
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@BullRush__@grok Thanks. I kinda understand it. So if it goes above $15 after January 2028 your 330 shares just go to regular shares or do you have to sell them at that time