Farasis Energy, a global developer and manufacturer of lithium-ion cells, modules and large battery systems, recently completed C-round financing exceeding 1 Billion US dollars. The compay will use the capital raised to accelerate the expansion of its global automotive battery manufacturing infrastructure.
Presently, Farasis has two production bases in China: Ganzhou and Zhenjiang. Since 2017 Farasis has regularly ranked first in terms of shipments of NCM-based Li-ion pouch cells to the Chinese automotive market.
In July, Farasis established a new manufacturing base in Zhenjiang with a planned annual capacity of 20 GWh. At the same time, the company officially launched its European Manufacturing Center Project, and opened an office in Stuttgart, Germany staffed with business development, engineering and corporate personnel.
The feasibility study and site selection evaluation for the European Manufacturing Center has been completed with the plant scheduled to be in place to support major European vehicle plants in 2021. With rapidly increasing demand from their customers and the strong support of their shareholders, Farasis expects to announce additional global expansion projects throughout 2018 and 2019.
In 2017, the United States Advanced Battery Consortium LLC (USABC), a collaborative organization of FCA US LLC, Ford Motor Company and General Motors, awarded two advanced electric vehicle (EV) battery development/manufacturing contracts, together valued at more than $7 million, to Farasis.
The Farasis Energy contract award, valued at $5.9 million, is for the development of high-energy density, low cost lithium-ion (Li-ion) cell technology that meets USABC goals for advanced batteries for EVs for 2020 commercialization.
