News
USA Battery Development & Manufacturing Updates
Watch on YouTube Dr. Mao's
6:26 Video Excerpts
What batteries is Enpower Greentech working on now?
“Enpower Greentech is basically working in 3 areas…
1. “All-solid-state battery development. Mostly in Japan where all-solid batteries have run for a few hundred cycles. The solid material is amazing – super ionic conductivity equal to or exceeding liquid electrolytes developed by Dr. Kano at Tokyo Technical University. They are building test cells to display the solid-electrolyte properties. Currently they need some pressure.
2. “Second is the semi-solid state battery development. They build the cells in Beijing, China and sell to drone companies in Asia. In the lab, the energy can reach 600Wh/kg. The batteries sold record 450Wh/kg. They are producing a 0.3 GWh factory in Beijing China by the end of this year.
3. “The third part of the work on lithium-ion batteries is the iron phosphate factory set in Ann Arbor, MI. The first pilot line is 0.2GWh factory for prismatic cells with target market as the automotive and energy storage. This factory will be running next year (2024) and provide samples to automotive customers starting from June/July 2024. They have designed and acquired the factory space to build up cell manufacturing in the US with advantages in lower cost and long cycle life. Energy density for these cells will be higher than conventional LFP batteries on the market with 100% recyclability. This is the Horizon Platform.”
With Enpower Greentech’s global presence how is that helpful in your development process?
“The development of lithium-ion batteries, from a historical point of view, started in Japan. In early years in 1992 Sony Japan released their first lithium-ion batteries to power a camera. The early technology was in Japan.
“After many years, say after 2010, the Chinese companies caught up. They built up more production capabilities developing material and equipment suppliers with human resources rapidly. Now the largest scale of lithium-ion production is firmly in China. Now they have a lot of production resources there. We look for the most readily resources worldwide.
“With the best technology in Japan, the best production in China and combined all of these in the US we can have the best resources from production manufacturing (China) and for battery technology for all-solid-electrolyte from Japan for competitive advantages.”
Any closing comments?
“I like the words, ‘you cannot go wrong if you work in the battery business.’ The battery industry is really growing in the US and there will soon be electric vehicles all over the United States. I have worked in this industry for many years and hope this trend will continue for many years to come.”
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