Battery news in March 2023.
Amprius
On 3/6/2023, Amprius signed a letter of intent for a 775,000 square foot facility in Brighton, Colorado.
The factory, targeted to be operational in 2025, will be built in phases starting with an initial 500 megawatt-hours (MWh) with the potential of up to 5 gigawatt-hours (GWh) within the initial footprint.
Amprius has formed two business units:
- Amprius Fab, to be located in Brighton, Colorado, will focus on large scale manufacturing of silicon anode batteries
- Amprius Lab, located in Fremont, California, will focus on advanced battery technology, product, and manufacturing process development. Source
Sakuu
Sakuu to Become Publicly Traded Company via Business Combination with Plum Acquisition Corp. I. Source
Solid State Battery Company Sakuu Goes Public via a SPAC Deal; The business combination values the combined company at an enterprise value of $705 million. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2023. Upon closing, it is expected to be listed on a U.S. national exchange under the ‘SAKU’ ticker. Source.
Tesla
On March 1st 2023, It is announced that Tesla plans to build its fifth Gigafactory in Mexico, near Monterrey (link).
The benefits including:
- Arid area near Austin, TX
- Free trade agreement among US, Canada, Mexico; Also Mexico has free trade agreement with 50 countries while US only have 20.
- Relatively cheap labor
- Biden’s IRA allows credits for EVs made in North America; eligible for up to $7,500 in tax credits(link)
Tesla 4680 battery’s secret sauce: Dry electrode coating. Electrode is coated by dry process, mostly extrusion process; the advantages are:
- No solvent emission during coating
- No drying
- No solvent needed
TES & Durapower
TES and Durapower to Collaborate on Lifecycle Management of Electric Vehicle Batteries
TEs and Durapower forged a MoU to establish a business alliance to extend the value and lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) of Durapower battery packs by repurposing them for second-life use, as well as ensuring efficient recycling at end-of-life to ensure materials can be reused in the battery raw material supply chain.
Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Argonne National Laboratory, and the University of Illinois at Chicago
Researchers at IIT, ANL, and UIC have developed a room-temperature solid-state lithium-air battery that is rechargeable for 1,000 cycles with a low polarization gap and can operate at high rates.
Using a composite polymer electrolyte based on Li10GeP2S12 nanoparticles embedded in a modified polyethylene oxide polymer matrix, the team found that Li2O is the main product in a room temperature solid-state lithium-air battery. Results are published in Science.