October Round Up 2025
Month 10 of 2025 already. Where did that time go?
💰 Money for Manufacturing is out but Money for Minerals is IN
The US Department of Energy has cancelled more than $700 million grants for battery manufacturing projects. These grants from the Biden government were to companies Ascend Elements, American Battery Technology Co, Anovion and ICL Speciality Products. The total cancelled could be up to $7.5 billion that was pledged to wind, solar, batteries and EVs in democrat run states, take a look here for the full list. Ascend Elements was supposed to receive $316 million, but insists it will continue building its plant in Kentucky that will manufacture components from recycled EV batteries.
Relatedly, the state of Michigan has asked for $100 million in subsidies back from a $2.4 billion factory project by Gotion which would have create 2,350 jobs. The Chinese company had already started construction on the project, now abandoned.
In contrast, the current US administration is very serious about domestic mineral supplies, with the Department of Energy even taking a 5% equity stake in both Lithium Americas and the Thacker pass project. This seems to be a supply-side approach to the critical mineral problem, without downstream policy for both manufacturing and demand. Similarly, the US-Japan trade talks discussed $2bn for copper smelting and refining in the US by company Falcon Copper Corp.
Interestingly, part of those trade talks did also agree a $350 million funding deal for an LFP battery factory by Mitra Chem. LFP batteries were first commercialised in the USA during the Obama administration, but the company was sold to Chinese owners and sadly the rest is history on America’s battery headstart. You can read more here.
🇨🇳 China holds all the cards
China has announced a new round of export restrictions on:
LIB with gravimetric energy density greater than or equal to 300 Wh/kg
Battery production equipment (winding, stacking, eletrolyte filling machines among others)
Cathode materials including LFP >155mAh/g and precusror for NMC and NCA
Graphite anode materials.
China’s already extremely strong grip on the battery supply chain is rapidly tightening.
Meanwhile, Chinese firm CATL has posted revenues of $49 billion for 2024, which is 4x the revenue of Korean giants LG Energy Solution, Samsung and SK On combined - reported at $11.8 billion. Only CATL is reporting an operational profit for 2024 of those companies.
Relatedly, Australian mining giant Fortescue is axing hundreds of jobs in the UK. The ambition remains the same, to electrify all the Pilbara iron ore mining operations by 2030, but rather than being made in house in the UK they will be manufactured in China as it is much cheaper.
Are we doomed to see all of the battery industry roles exported to China? If the end goal is emissions reductions, it shouldn’t matter where the clean tech advances happen, but how do we keep these skilled jobs in European countries when the end goal is always cost?
♻️ Recalls Recalls Recalls
Li Auto, a leading Chinese EV company, has recalled over 11,000 cars due to thermal runaway risk. The reason given is that the coolant is insufficiently anti-corrosive, and hence can corrode parts of the car and in extreme cases cause thermal runaway. The company will replace the coolant and all possible corroded items - power battery and front motor controller - as well as implementing a cloud based warning to those who have not yet had the issues addressed. BYD too has recalled over 115,000 cars due to ‘design defects and battery related safety risks’.
🍬 Tidbits
🏎️ Expect cool features like wireless charging and a structured battery pack in the new high voltage Porsche Cayenne in a few weeks. Porsche owner BMW is suffering €1.3 billion operating loss for Q3, and attributes an expected €5 billion cost this year to US tariffs.
🧂 UK firm Cornish Lithium has produced UK lithium hydroxide for the first time extracted from a forma china clay quarry.
🇪🇸 2000 Chinese works have been sent to Spain to build and fit out the CATL-Stellantis joint venture plant.
⌛ Ambri, liquid metal battery, is winding down after not raising sufficient capital to build a factory.
✍️ QuantumScape has signed an agreement with Murata, ceramics manufacturer, to produce ceramic separators for solid state batteries.
🍁 Norwegian synthetic graphite company Vianode has chosen Ontario for its large scale factory, backed by the Canadian government to improve critical mineral supply in North America.
💯 100-hour iron air batteries being rolled out by Form Energy. Their manufacturing will be scaled up to meet AI demand on the grid.
🍭 Looking for an ultraweight power bank? Maybe consider an unorthodox supplier, as this summer the gummy bear company Haribo made a 280.6 gram 20,000 mAh power bank, touted as the ‘lightest ever’ for backpackers.
🎧 What else we’re reading and listening to
Progress and Prospect of Industrialisation of Sodium-Ion Battery In China, article by a collection of talented CATL engineers.
Battery Bombs food for thought piece.
📰 What else we covered at Intercalation
Silicon double bill with Dutch company LeydenJar where we covered the science and industry overview, as well as a feature piece on the company itself.
A Faraday Conference 2025 review by PhD researcher Jess McConnell.
Part 2 of Claire Cobley’s Deep Sea Mining series on mineral processing and waste.
🌞 Thanks for reading!
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