Group14 signs agreements with five leading EV and CE cell manufacturers
29 June 2024
Group14 Technologies, Inc., the world’s largest global manufacturer, and supplier of advanced silicon battery materials, has signed five multi-year binding offtake agreements amounting to a minimum commitment of more than $300 million with three leading electric vehicle (EV) and two consumer electronic (CE) cell manufacturers across Europe, Asia, and North America.
The five binding offtake agreements represent more than $300 million of contract value.
The agreements will allow Group14’s customers to deliver the highest performance batteries in production today to a diverse array of industries, including automotive, CE, electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL), and other markets. This reflects the broad applicability and high demand for Group14’s breakthrough silicon-carbon anode material, SCC55.
This material is engineered to deliver superior energy density, faster charging times, and greater overall efficiency compared to traditional graphite and silicon oxide-containing anodes and reduces the carbon footprint for its customers.
Group14’s full customer base has forecasted demand for SCC55 that is more than four times the company’s projected production capacity by 2027. As a result, Group14 is rapidly scaling its global manufacturing capabilities worldwide.
The company’s advanced Battery Active Materials (BAM-1) factory has been manufacturing at the ton-scale since 2021. It has delivered shipments of SCC55 to more than 100 customers representing 95% of worldwide lithium-ion battery production.
A second factory in Moses Lake, Washington, is planned to start production in 2024 and is expected to be the world’s largest for advanced silicon battery materials with an initial annual capacity of 4,000 tons of SCC55 or 20 GWh of silicon battery material.
The first manufacturing module from Group14’s joint venture with SK, Inc. in South Korea is in the final stages of commissioning. It will have a nameplate manufacturing capacity of 2,000 tons of SCC55, equivalent to 10 GWh of silicon battery capacity annually. 30 GWh of production capacity will be ramping up in the next year.
Kinda wish that there was more context and analysis - what are the batteries' supply chain, cost per kWh, weight, manufacturing complexity/ scalability...
I suppose that at the end of the day, we need to determine "what is the good enough battery?" do we really need to keep playing with battery chemistries forever? - maybe that which provides 25%+ more BEV range than the equivalent ICE model at all types of personal vehicles with 5-minute-40% charge and 90-minute-80% charge, 10,000 cycles of at least 50% capacity per cycle - never falling below 70% of original, all weathers and climates, etc., etc.
I just want us to get us to a world where vehicle emissions are less than 10% of all emissions and there are 1.5 cars for every family of min 3 across the world - there: A successful, advanced, mobile human civilization - let's move on.
Posted by: Jer | 29 June 2024 at 06:00 AM