Irvine, California-based Enevate and Korea’s JR Energy Solution today announced that they’re going to jointly build a US battery cell electrode factory.
Enevate and JR ES will tailor-make lithium-ion battery cell electrodes, including anodes and cathodes, and also provide a variety of electrode solutions for other customers.
Enevate develops extreme fast charging EV battery technology, and JR Energy Solution (JR ES) designs and manufactures lithium-ion battery electrodes and cells. JR ES’s cell foundry model enables lithium-ion cell makers to produce tailor-made electrodes and cell solutions.
Enevate explained how the joint battery cell electrode factory is going to work:
[T]he 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.
Enevate CEO Bob Kruse said, “This collaboration with JR Energy Solution is great news for the whole battery industry in the US. It will allow customers to get access to Enevate’s industry-leading silicon-dominant battery technology and to tap into JR ES’s knowledge and expertise in electrode and battery cell manufacturing. Moreover, it will enable customers to accelerate their development process or to outsource parts of their production capacity.”
The two companies said they’re currently evaluating potential US locations. Their plan is to produce up to 6 GWh of annual paired electrode capacity (6 GWh anode + 6 GWh cathode) in different building stages.
JR ES has broken ground on its first factory, in South Korea, and it’s expected to come online in the fourth quarter of this year.
