Battery Metals

Global EV battery developer Gotion High-Tech has announced a major investment in the state of Illinois to the tune of $2 billion to erect a new gigafactory in Manteno – about 50 miles south of Chicago. With logistic and financial support from the state, Gotion’s new plant becomes the largest investment in EV battery technology in Illinois history.

Gotion High-Tech Co., Ltd. is a battery R&D and energy solutions provider that is headquartered in China, but has footprints on continents all over the world, including Fremont, CA – home to Tesla’s original gigafactory. Most recently, Gotion has been expanding to Vietnam via a joint venture with VinES, the energy division of VinFast.

The company specializes in several different types of battery chemistries, particularly in support of the automotive segment. This includes new lithium-iron-manganese-phosphate (LMFP) batteries (seen below) promising 1,000 km (621 miles) of range on a single charge, as well as lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries that we’ve reported on in the past, as Tesla was at one point rumored to be helping bring a factory to the US.

While we have no confirmation that Tesla is involved in any way, Gotion High-Tech has found a home for its US EV battery manufacturing plant – Illinois. Beginning next year, the company intends to begin producing batteries for automakers based all around North America.

Gotion’s plant the largest EV battery investment in Illinois

Gotion High-Tech and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker joined local state leaders in the city Manteno – the future home of the EV battery manufacturing facility announced today. Gotion shared that the roughly 150-acre site will focus on the production of lithium-ion cells, battery packs, and energy storage system integration.

When complete, the state-of-the-art facility is expected to produce 10 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of lithium-ion packs and 40 GWh of li-ion cells – all in support of the local US EV supply chain. Gotion cited plans to manufacture batteries for its current partners as well as “additional EV manufacturers across North America.” During today’s press event in Manteno, Governor Pritzker spoke:

Today, we take another leap forward, announcing the largest electric vehicle battery production investment in Illinois to date. It’s my pleasure to welcome a world-leading battery manufacturer – Gotion – to Illinois. This announcement is a testament to Illinois status as a leading destination for companies and investors who want the most talented workers, the best transportation systems, and a collaborative economic growth mindset from their partners in government at all levels. With 2,600 new jobs, a $2 billion gigafactory, and the most significant new manufacturing investment in Illinois in decades – it’s the most recent proof that we are in a new paradigm. Illinois is on the rise, and we’re open for business.

Gotion’s decision to call The Land of Lincoln its new home was hardened by Pritzker and the state’s REV (Reimagining Energy and Vehicles) Illinois incentive package, plus a new fun called “Invest in Illinois.” Pritzker has been publicly courting prospective OEMs in the EV sector to come to Illinois and Gotion is now the first to take advantage of Invest in Illinois – which will provide the EV battery developer with $125 million in capital.

The state shared that Gotion’s entire incentive package is valued at $536 million and includes eligibility to receive $213 million in tax benefits over the next 30 years through REV. To qualify, Gotion must invest a minimum of $1.9 million and create at least 2,600 full-time jobs that pay at least 120% of the average wage for similar positions in Manteno’s Kankakee County.

The REV agreement has been fully executed, meaning the central Illinois city can expect to see thousands of job openings over the course of the next year. Lastly, Gotion will also receive 30 years of property tax abatement which has already been approved by local authorities. Gotion chairman Li Zhen spoke to the company’s new EV battery plant’s potential in a state like Illinois:

Energy and environmental protection are our common challenges. To address them, solar power, wind, and energy storage systems are becoming the backbone of a new energy system and accelerate the revolution in the global energy landscape. All that we see here [in Illinois] are of enormous value to us: an enabling business environment, a supportive state government for the new energy industry and their highly efficient work, as well as the prospects of the State of Illinois in the coming years. When we come to Illinois, we are not building a new factory but are planning to reuse an existing one and bring it back to life again as our way of cherishing and conserving resources. We believe that Gotion’s battery technology will help to boost e-mobility in North America and the economic and trade exchanges between China and the US.

Gotion says the new facility is expected to begin EV battery production in 2024. Illinois will also fund a manufacturing training academy nearby to prepare regional employees for jobs in the next-generation battery segment.

European metals and materials companies are urging the EU to ramp up financial support for the bloc’s battery industry to help it face strong competition from China and the United States, a joint letter to the EU Commission showed on Thursday.

The companies said the European Union’s current plans and funds were not enough for the necessary investments in the bloc’s battery industry for electric vehicles and renewable power storage – a pillar of the shift to green technologies.

“Today China controls not only large shares of cleantech manufacturing, but also 50-90% of the critical minerals processing capacity needed for those, as well as many global resources,” said the letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, signed by 16 companies and organisations.

They included miner Rio Tinto (RIO.L), chemicals group Solvay (SOLB.BR) and battery materials makers Umicore (UMI.BR) and Northvolt.

“The U.S. is fast catching up with its mammoth investment package under the Inflation Reduction Act, while Europe’s investment climate has been further worsened from the ongoing Ukraine conflict,” the letter added.

The companies called for a European Critical Minerals Fund, which would operate on an EU level and which could directly finance companies.

They also urged the commission to expand its innovation fund with targeted support for the critical minerals sector.

Existing EU funding streams are “a patchwork of insufficient, uncoordinated and complex schemes” which focus mostly on research and development, they said.

“As such, they do not support production scale-up and are not enough to make the business case to invest in Europe.”

Accelera, a zero-emissions business unit of Cummins (CMI.N), Daimler Trucks & Buses US Holding and PACCAR (PCAR.O) said on Wednesday they formed a joint venture to advance battery cell production in the United States.

Demand for lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery technology remains strong from companies such as Tesla (TSLA.O), Toyota Motor (7203.T), Ford Motor (F.N) and Hyundai Motor (005380.KS), looking to cut back expenses and push out more affordable electric vehicles (EV).

Daimler Truck, Accelera and PACCAR will each own 30% of the joint venture, which will initially focus on LFP battery technology family for commercial battery-electric trucks.

The companies, which expect to see growing demand for their battery technology through the decade, added they expect to invest between $2 billion and $3 billion to set up a 21-gigawatt hour (GWh) factory to manufacture LFP battery cells.

“This planned joint venture enables economies of scale beyond Daimler Truck,” said Martin Daum, CEO of Daimler Truck.

LFP battery-cell maker EVE Energy (300014.SZ) will also serve as the technology partner in the joint venture with a 10% ownership.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.

LFP battery cells were developed in the United States, but Chinese companies such as BYD (002594.SZ) and CATL (300750.SZ) currently dominate global production.

Additionally, more companies have been trying to set up manufacturing facilities in the United States and take advantage of the federal subsidies offered.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has had a peculiar but positive result: A newly invigorated push across Europe to rely less on Russia’s crude oil and to hit its renewable energy goals.

It has also spurred research into safer alternatives to the lithium-ion batteries used in the ever-expanding electric vehicle market.

Research on batteries made of sand, for example, is gaining traction, according to The Washington Post.

Ukraine War has sped up clean energy research across Europe

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sparked interest in more clean energy sources in Europe, said Olga Khakova, deputy director for European energy security at the Global Energy Center at the Atlantic Council.

“Russia wanted to ensure that Ukraine would receive no support or minimal support from allies in order to make it as easy as possible for them to achieve their geopolitical objectives in the country,” Khakova told Insider. “And one of the ways that they wanted to ensure that is through holding Europe hostage through tremendous reliance on Russian energy supplies.”

The push for clean energy solutions has fostered collaboration among energy experts across the continent, leading to new innovations across the board, she said.

“There’s always tensions and different views in terms of some of the climate policies,” Khakova said. “But watching Europe put a lot of these issues aside and kind of come together to stick through this and overcome this energy crisis, resilience and innovation is still there.”

One of the key resulting innovations has been new alternatives to lithium-ion batteries, the development of which is tied to human rights abuses and environmental harm.

Lithium-ion battery alternatives made from sand

Amid this wave of new research, a Finnish company called Polar Night Energy is producing batteries made out of sand that it says can rival the power of lithium-ion batteries, the Washington Post reported.

Sand batteries store energy generated by the sun or wind that is then converted into heat, which the sand can hold and maintain — with the help of a fan — until it’s time to use it for energy, researchers told the Post.

The development could help alleviate the human rights abuses and environmental damage that often come with mining cobalt and nickel, two key components of a lithium-ion battery.

The cobalt mining industry relies heavily on child labor, according to Amnesty International. In just the Democratic Republic of the Congo — the world’s largest supplier of cobalt — Amnesty International estimates about 40,000 children are working in cobalt mines.

Khakova said the war in Ukraine has accelerated discussions among energy experts across Europe about how to set proper standards for the mining and processing of these critical minerals.

Beyond the human rights abuses prevalent in the cobalt industry, lithium-ion batteries also present environmental hazards. Fires caused by the batteries are on the rise, with some incidents requiring hundreds of firefighters to extinguish, CNN reported earlier this year.

With the rapid growth of the smart and wearable electronic devices market, smart next-generation energy storage systems that have energy storage functions as well as additional color-changing properties are receiving a great deal of attention. However, existing electrochromic devices have low electrical conductivity, leading to low efficiency in electron and ion mobility, and low storage capacities. Such batteries have therefore been limited to use in flexible and wearable devices.

On August 21, a joint research team led by Professor Il-Doo Kim from the KAIST Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE) and Professor Tae Gwang Yun from the Myongji University Department of Materials Science and Engineering announced the development of a smart electrochromic Zn-ion battery that can visually represent its charging and discharging processes using an electrochromic polymer anode incorporated with a “π-bridge spacer,” which increases electron and ion mobility efficiency.

Their research was published as an inside cover article for Advanced Materials on August 3 under the title, “A π-Bridge Spacer Embedded Electron Donor-Acceptor Polymer for Flexible Electrochromic Zn-Ion Batteries.”

Batteries topped with electrochromic properties are groundbreaking inventions that can visually represent their charged and discharged states using colors, and can be used as display devices that cut down energy consumption for indoor cooling by controlling solar absorbance. The research team successfully built a flexible and electrochromic smart Zn-ion battery that can maintain its excellent electrochromic and electrochemical properties, even under long-term exposure to the atmosphere and mechanical deformations.

To maximize the efficiency of electron and ion mobility, the team modeled and synthesized the first π-bridge spacer-incorporated polymer anode in the world. π-bonds can improve the mobility of electrons within a structure to speed up ion movement and maximize ion adsorption efficiency, which improves its energy storage capacity.

In anode-based batteries with a π-bridge spacer, the spacer provides room for quicker ion movement. This allows fast charging, an improved zinc-ion discharging capacity of 110 mAh/g, which is 40% greater than previously reported, and a 30% increase in electrochromic function that switches from dark blue to transparent when the device is charged/discharged.

In addition, should the transparent flexible battery technology be applied to smart windows, they would display darker colors during the day while they absorb solar energy, and function as a futuristic energy storage technique that can block out UV radiation and replace curtains.

Professor Il-Doo Kim said, “We have developed a polymer incorporated with a π-bridge spacer and successfully built a smart Zn-ion battery with excellent electrochromic efficiency and high energy storage capacity.” He added, “This technique goes beyond the existing concept of batteries that are used simply as energy storage devices, and we expect this technology to be used as a futuristic energy storage system that accelerates innovation in smart batteries and wearable technologies.”