QuantumScape (QS) Stock on November 16, 2025: Solid‑State Battery Breakthroughs, Sharply Higher Volatility, and What Comes Next

Quick Take: Where QuantumScape Stands Today

Last close: QuantumScape (NYSE: QS) ended trading on Friday, November 14, at $13.43, down about 17% from earlier in the week, but still far above its 2025 lows. ^[1]
Big picture: Despite this week’s pullback, QS is still up roughly 180–200% in 2025, after a series of solid‑state battery milestones and partnership announcements sent the stock to multi‑year highs in October. TechStock²+1
Today, November 16, 2025: There are no new QuantumScape press releases or company‑specific announcements so far today, but investors are still digesting:
- Friday’s “crash this week” coverage from The Motley Fool,
- A new “where will QS be in 5 years?” piece published yesterday, and
- Ongoing analysis of Q3 earnings, insider selling and commercialization progress. ^[2]
Fundamentals: Q3 2025 brought a narrower net loss, $12.8 million in customer billings, and confirmation that QuantumScape now expects its cash runway to last through the end of the decade. ^[3]
Milestones: The company has begun shipping QSE‑5 “B1” solid‑state samples built with its new Cobra ceramic process, expanded its Volkswagen PowerCo licensing deal to as much as 85 GWh of potential capacity, and inked high‑profile partnerships with Corning and Murata for ceramic separators. ^[4]
Risk profile: QuantumScape is still pre‑revenue, deeply loss‑making, and its technology must scale from pilot lines to automotive‑grade mass production. Analysts and commentators broadly agree it’s a high‑risk, high‑reward story. ^[5]

QuantumScape Stock on November 16, 2025: Cooling After a Wild Run

Because November 16 falls on a Sunday, the latest available quote is Friday’s close. European financial portals list QuantumScape’s New York close at $13.43, down 1.03% on the day, with a 52‑week range of roughly $3.40 to $19.06. ^[6]

That puts the stock:

About 30% below recent intraday peaks above $19 in October, ^[7]
Yet still up well over 100% year‑on‑year, following a 2025 rally that saw QS shares roughly triple over the last six months. TechStock²+1

Short‑term technicals have flipped from euphoria to caution:

An Investing.com technical screen updated on November 16 shows QS trading near $13.5 with multiple moving‑average and momentum indicators flashing “sell” or “strong sell” on the daily chart. ^[8]
TipRanks’ technical dashboard, also dated November 16, highlights that the share price still sits well above its 200‑day average, underscoring how elevated QS remains relative to early‑2025 levels even after this week’s slide. ^[9]

In short: today’s price action is quiet because markets are closed – but it caps off one of the most volatile weeks QuantumScape has seen since its SPAC era.

Why Did QuantumScape “Crash” This Week?

On Friday, The Motley Fool (via Nasdaq) bluntly asked: “Why Did QuantumScape Stock Crash This Week?” The piece notes that QS has fallen nearly 16% since last Friday’s close, even after more than tripling over the previous six months. ^[10]

Several factors are feeding into that pullback:

1. A Normal Hangover After a 200%+ Rally

Tech and battery specialists at TS2 and The Economic Times have spent the last month chronicling how QuantumScape shares surged about 200% year‑to‑date on the back of its solid‑state breakthroughs and the integration of the Cobra ceramic separator process. TechStock²+2The Economic Times+2

After that kind of run, even modest doubts can trigger outsized swings. As the Motley Fool piece frames it, this week’s sell‑off looks more like a “breather” than a reaction to catastrophic news, with QS caught in a broader shake‑out of high‑beta tech. ^[11]

2. Insider Selling in the Spotlight

Recent coverage from CoinCentral and other outlets has also zeroed in on insider stock sales:

Earlier in the year, chief development officer Mohit Singh sold roughly $4 million worth of stock on a single day, which coincided with a double‑digit drop in QS shares. ^[12]
More recently, CoinCentral highlights that executives collectively sold “millions in stock” after a roughly 200% year‑to‑date rally, further stoking questions about valuation and timing. ^[13]

The Motley Fool adds nuance, pointing out that at least one high‑profile transaction — director J.B. Straubel’s sale of over 150,000 shares around $17 — appears to have been executed under a pre‑arranged trading plan, not a sudden vote of no confidence. ^[14]

Still, with sentiment already stretched, “executives selling into strength” has become an easy narrative hook for traders.

3. Persistent Skepticism About the Path to Profits

German financial site aktiencheck.de captures another theme with headlines like “Battery Innovator QuantumScape Faces Investor Skepticism Ahead of Earnings” and “QuantumScape Shares Plunge as Investor Patience Wears Thin.” ^[15]

Their October analysis, now being re‑circulated and read on November 16, emphasizes:

Steep ongoing losses (over $100 million per quarter),
The disconnect between technical achievements and minimal revenue, and
Options markets pricing in “extreme nervousness” around earnings. ^[16]

This week’s drop is best seen as all of these narratives colliding: profit‑taking after a huge run, headline‑grabbing insider sales, and a reminder that QuantumScape still has to prove it can turn breakthrough cells into a durable business.

Q3 2025: Narrower Losses, First Customer Billings, Longer Runway

Beneath the stock volatility, QuantumScape’s Q3 2025 results (released October 22) provide the clearest snapshot of the business heading into year‑end. ^[17]

From the shareholder letter and financials:

Net loss:
- Q3 2025 net loss of $105.8 million versus $119.7 million in Q3 2024.
- EPS improved from ‑$0.23 to ‑$0.18 year‑on‑year. ^[18]
Operating expenses:
- R&D for the quarter: $92.1 million, slightly down from $97.0 million a year earlier.
- G&A: $22.9 million, sharply lower than $33.2 million in Q3 2024. ^[19]
Cash and liquidity:
- Cash + marketable securities: about $1.0 billion total liquidity at quarter‑end.
- Management now projects its cash runway extending “through the end of the decade”, a roughly 12‑month extension from prior guidance (“into 2029”). ^[20]
Cash burn and capex:
- Net cash used in operations for the first nine months of 2025: about $186 million, down from ~$216 million in the same period of 2024. ^[21]
- Q3 capex: ~$9.6 million, mostly for the Eagle Line pilot facility.
- Full‑year capex guidance cut to $30–40 million, thanks in part to efficiency gains from the Cobra process and timing shifts in equipment orders. ^[22]
New metric – customer billings:
- QuantumScape introduced “customer billings” as a key operational metric and reported $12.8 million in billings in Q3, reflecting invoices to automakers and partners for development work and sample cells. ^[23]

While GAAP revenue is still negligible, those billings — and the shift away from constantly talking about “cash runway” — underscore that QuantumScape is transitioning from pure R&D into paid technical collaborations and early product work.

Commercialization Milestones: QSE‑5 B1, Cobra and the Ducati Demo

QuantumScape’s story has always been about technology first, revenue later. In 2025, that technology side finally began to look real outside the lab.

QSE‑5 “B1” Samples and Cobra Process

A widely read Seeking Alpha note this month titled “QuantumScape: QSE‑5 Battery Shipment Sparks Commercialization Inflection” highlights what many bulls see as the biggest milestone of the year: ^[24]

First shipments of QSE‑5 “B1” samples — the latest generation of QuantumScape’s solid‑state lithium‑metal cells — to automotive partners.
These B1 cells are built using the Cobra ceramic separator process, which replaced the older “Raptor” method and, according to Battery Technology’s deep‑dive, improves heat‑treatment throughput by roughly 200x versus 2023 processes and about 25x over Raptor. ^[25]

Because QuantumScape’s entire architecture hinges on its ceramic separator (which replaces flammable liquid electrolytes in conventional lithium‑ion cells), Cobra is not just a manufacturing tweak; it’s the enabler for gigawatt‑hour‑scale production.

Ducati & PowerCo: First Live Solid‑State EV Demonstration

In September, QuantumScape and Volkswagen battery subsidiary PowerCo staged what ElectricCarsReport described as the world’s first live demonstration of a solid‑state battery powering an electric vehicle: a Ducati V21L race bike equipped with QSE‑5 cells. ^[26]

Key details from that demo:

The Ducati prototype used a first‑of‑its‑kind battery pack designed by Audi specifically for QuantumScape cells.
The system showcased:
- Energy density around 844 Wh/L,
- Charging from 10% to 80% in just over 12 minutes, and
- 10C continuous discharge, suitable for track‑level performance. ^[27]

QuantumScape’s CEO Dr. Siva Sivaram framed the event as “crossing the threshold from possibility to reality”, and PowerCo’s leadership called it the starting gun for bringing solid‑state cells to high‑performance vehicles. ^[28]

PowerCo, Corning, Murata: Building a Supply Chain

Several 2025 deals have rounded out QuantumScape’s ecosystem:

Expanded PowerCo collaboration:
- VW’s battery arm secured rights to produce up to an additional 5 GWh of QSE‑5‑based cells annually, bringing total potential capacity to about 85 GWh under the licensing structure. ^[29]
- The expansion includes up to $131 million in milestone‑based payments over two years, helping fund QuantumScape’s scale‑up. ^[30]
Corning partnership:
- An October 7 analysis at CarbonCredits.com details a new partnership with Corning, aimed at boosting ceramic separator manufacturing by combining QuantumScape’s designs with Corning’s glass and ceramics expertise. ^[31]
- That article notes QS shares hit a 52‑week high near $16.5 around the announcement, with year‑to‑date gains of around 180% at that point. ^[32]
Murata Manufacturing:
- In parallel, QuantumScape upgraded a partnership with Murata into a joint development agreement focused on mass‑producing separators, further diversifying its supply chain. ^[33]

Taken together, these moves support QuantumScape’s “high‑touch licensing” model: rather than owning massive factories, QS intends to develop the tech, industrialize it on pilot lines, and license manufacturing to giants like PowerCo and other OEMs. ^[34]

How Analysts and Commentators See QS Right Now

Near‑Term Takes: Volatile, But Not “Broken”

Motley Fool (Nov 14):
Describes this week’s drop as a post‑rally pause rather than a fundamental breakdown, noting that the sell‑off occurred “without any negative company news” and that the addressable EV battery market remains enormous if QS technology is adopted. ^[35]
Motley Fool (Nov 15):
In a follow‑up piece asking “Where Will QuantumScape Stock Be in 5 Years?”, the author reminds readers that the company “still has a lot to prove”, even after its recent milestones and share‑price surge. ^[36]
Zacks:
A recent Zacks screen of “stocks to buy for fast earnings acceleration” features QuantumScape, citing its improving loss profile and the prospect of revenue ramping as commercial deals progress. ^[37]

Medium‑Term Bulls: “Convex Long” With Commercial Inflection

On Seeking Alpha, multiple authors remain openly bullish:

One calls QS a “convex long on the future of solid‑state energy”, describing the risk‑reward as skewed to the upside for investors willing to tolerate extreme volatility. ^[38]
Another, in the “QSE‑5 Battery Shipment Sparks Commercialization Inflection” note, argues that the combination of B1 sample shipments, PowerCo expansion, and first customer revenue justifies a “buy” rating, while explicitly warning about scalability and field‑validation risks. ^[39]

Elsewhere, long‑range comparisons — including an October Forbes piece weighing QuantumScape versus D‑Wave Quantum — emphasize that QuantumScape has now logged its first‑ever customer billings and that even modest commercial traction could move the needle given today’s sub‑$10 billion market cap. ^[40]

The Main Risks Investors Are Watching

Even QuantumScape’s supporters are clear about what could go wrong:

Technology scale‑up risk
- Solid‑state cells must prove long‑term durability, safety, and yield in automotive conditions at scale. Lab and demo success doesn’t automatically translate to cheap, repeatable mass production. ^[41]
Profitability still far away
- Q3’s narrower loss is progress, but a $100+ million quarterly loss and minimal recognized revenue leave a long road to self‑funding operations. ^[42]
Valuation whiplash
- After a 200%+ run, QuantumScape’s share price has become extremely sensitive to headlines and sentiment, as October’s >15% single‑day plunge and this week’s ~17% slide vividly showed. ^[43]
Execution with partners
- The strategy hinges on PowerCo, Corning, Murata and other OEMs successfully executing on complex, cutting‑edge manufacturing while QS maintains tight control over its IP. Coordination failures, delays, or shifting priorities at partners could derail timelines. ^[44]
Policy and competitive landscape
- U.S. and EU industrial policy is currently a tailwind, but subsidies, China‑related supply‑chain rules, and competing solid‑state efforts from Toyota, Samsung and others could reshape the market over the next five years. ^[45]

Bottom Line for November 16, 2025

As of today, November 16, 2025, QuantumScape sits at an interesting crossroads:

Technically, it has never looked more real: B1 samples are shipping, the Cobra process is live, Ducati has ridden on QSE‑5 cells, and PowerCo is preparing for tens of gigawatt‑hours of capacity. ^[46]
Financially, it is still a high‑burn, pre‑revenue story with a long‑dated cash runway but no guarantee of eventual profitability. ^[47]
On the market, QS has swung from a 200% breakout to a sharp correction in a matter of weeks, largely driven by sentiment, insider‑sale headlines and macro risk appetite rather than any single devastating company event. aktiencheck.de+3TechStock²+3Nasdaq+3

For traders, QS remains a high‑octane volatility vehicle tied closely to news flow.
For longer‑term investors, the thesis today looks much as it did a week ago: if QuantumScape can industrialize its solid‑state design at scale, today’s pullbacks may someday look like noise — but the road from here to commercial, profitable volume is still long and uncertain.

This article is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment or trading advice. Always do your own research and consider consulting a licensed financial professional before making investment decisions.

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