Enevate, a US-based battery company developing extreme fast charge and high energy density battery technologies for electric vehicles (EVs) and other markets, and Korea’s JR Energy Solution (JR ES), a designer of high-performance lithium-ion battery electrodes and cells, announced a joint plan to build a battery cell electrode manufacturing facility in the United States.
JR ES develops and manufactures high-performance lithium-ion battery electrodes with a novel electrode and battery cell foundry model, enabling lithium-ion cell manufacturers and other partners to produce tailor-made electrodes and cell solutions. JR ES has announced the initial groundbreaking for its first production facility in South Korea, which is planned to start initial production from Q4 of 2023.
Last month, Enevate announced that it had licensed its silicon-dominant XFC-Energy battery technology to JR ES for future products and applications. This collaboration will now be expanded to include the joint construction of a battery cell electrode manufacturing facility in the US. Enevate and JR ES have signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to work together on establishing a US manufacturing facility and have begun the process of identifying potential locations.
The facility will produce tailor-made lithium-ion battery cell anodes and cathodes, which is intended to accelerate the market penetration of Enevate’s battery fast charge technology for existing and new Enevate customers.
The facility will also provide various electrode solutions for other customers including, but not limited to, graphite, silicon, LFP, NMC, NCMA and NCA, for different battery cell form factors such as pouch or cylindrical cells.
Customers will have the opportunity to develop electrodes and battery cells utilizing Enevate’s silicon-dominant XFC-Energy anode battery technology, which delivers up to 10 times faster charging than conventional lithium-ion batteries with high energy densities and significantly improved cold-temperature performance for future applications such as electric two/three-wheelers or electric vehicles.
The battery cell electrode foundry facility will enable customers to outsource parts of their production; speed up their development process; or order tailor-made electrodes to qualify their materials or production equipment, while having the benefit of receiving ultra-high-quality electrodes produced on state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment at mass production speed.
The two companies said they are currently in the evaluation process for different potential locations for their joint production facility. The facility is currently planned to reach up to 6 GWh of annual paired electrode capacity (6 GWh anode + 6 GWh cathode) in different building stages.