November News Roundup
November News Roundup
Who managed to make it through No Cobalt November?
Continued cost decreases…
If you enjoy this newsletter please give us a share and subscribe! For business inquiries, please reach out!
🛠️ Industry News
Down but not out
BNEF’s annual price survey has found that pack prices fell 6% to $132/kWh. While the battery industry has celebrated a momentous decade of cost declines, all signals point to an inflection point driven by rising (you may have heard) rising raw material prices. Chinese Blade-battery producer BYD also announced they would bump their cell prices up by 20%, starting this month.
Even so, low prices have been a major driver for EV penetration, with pure-BEV sales destroying previous forecasts and reaching 10% of total global annual passenger vehicle sales. As always - beware of the interests of pundits: this 2015 OPEC report predicted only 6% penetration by 2040.
Check out the research section to see the reasons behind cost declines.
AI AI Captain!
Would you like your battery with a side of AI? CATL does, announcing a collab with DPTechnology, a Beijing-based AI tech company that does simulations for materials and chemistry. Accelerating materials discovery and battery design processes is a goal shared by many, such as AIonics, a US startup helping reduce real-world experiments needed. Their work featured in a climate change report by GPAI. AI+batteries also featured heavily in this years Forbes 30 under 30, with Tesla’s Peter Attia & IQHi’s Yige Li making the list. Earlier this month Vivas Kumar’s Mitra Chem also raised $20M to use a machine-learning advantage to improve on “iron-based cathodes”. We await eagerly to see how AI advances LFP.
Want to read more than this sprinkling of AI+batteries? Venkat Viswanathan writes about how he’s dolloped it on his projects in this medium post!
Cathode cold feet
While Mitra Chem dives into the cathode business in the US, Johnson Matthey has put their entire battery materials division on sale. The latest reports have Indian giant Tata Chemicals in talks with JM on a deal for about $700M. Why are they selling? Cathodes were key to JM’s roadmap in March. Now they’re saying capital intensity is too high for a commodity good. With EV costs down and mineral prices soaring, it is very hard to forecast financials for smaller-scale projects. Production also requires a ridiculous amount of energy (3 billion kWh a year according to Gotion).
Currently, the US only accounts for 1% of global cathode capacity, but things may begin to change with GM and Posco sharing their ambitions to do something about it via a JV by 2024.
🔬 Research News
What enabled the cost decline?
MIT researchers have looked into what actual factors enabled massive cost declines in LiBs. The biggest low-level contributors were an increase in charge density, while overall, R&D on materials and chemistry are attributed. This is a good reminder that research and policy support is important to enable future improvements!
Battery electric trains
Yes really! A new study in Nature Energy finds that, instead of electrifying the entire rail infrastructure, cheap LFP batteries can enable retrofitting US freight trains from diesel-electric to battery-electric. Benefits include a rapid conversion, and improved health and economic outcomes for low-income communities. Modelling shows that a single boxcar with a 14 MWh LFP battery can enable a 241 km range. The entire US freight rail sector would need around 220 GWh of batteries, but it would also have the potential to act as mobile grid storage.
Meanwhile, Germany has already placed orders for 44 battery-electric trains.
🚀 Startup Tracker
Solid Power (US) received $30m investment from SK Innovation for solid-state battery pre-commercial production.
Cornish Lithium (UK) secures £18m from Techmet for domestic lithium extraction and supply in the UK.
Factorial Energy (US) receives corporate investment from Daimler, Stellantis for lithium metal batteries.
Make My Day (Israel) raises $4.3m for smart software solutions that are designed to help EV drivers and fleets more efficiently manage their charging needs.
Imperial-spinout Breathe Battery Technologies (UK) raises £1.5m seed round for smart battery software
Cummins invests an undisclosed amount in Sion Power (US) for lithium metal batteries.
Bumblebee Power (UK) raises £750k seed round for wireless charging for EVs.
📅 What we’re working on
Remember the State of Batteries 2020 Annual Report that we did last year in collaboration with the BatteryBits team? We’re putting together the final touches for this year’s report. Look out for it in the coming weeks… we’re excited to share it with you!
🎧 On our reading/listening list
Faraday Institution. EV life-cycle emissions in the UK
New York Times. Cobalt and the clean energy revolution
European Commission. Roadmap on cell design and manufacturing
🌞 Thanks for reading!
📧 For tips, feedback, or enquiries, please reach out!
🌐 Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and our website for more information.