fbpx

Type to search

Battery Maker to Build US Factory to Reduce China Dependence

The company’s hyper-local business model will offer Statevolt “a significant advantage in producing lithium-ion batteries at scale”, CEO Lars Carlstrom said


Workers at a lithium battery factory
Workers at a lithium battery factory in Germany. Prices of lithium have soared over the past year as demand for the EV battery material rise, exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photo: AFP

 

Electric vehicle battery maker Italvolt‘s founder said on Tuesday he would launch a company to build a battery-manufacturing gigafactory in California that could serve about 650,000 EVs a year with an expected outlay of $4 billion.

The US is among many countries encouraging indigenous production of batteries and its materials in a bid to simplify supply chains for the booming EV industry and reduce dependence on Chinese manufacturing.

The new company, Statevolt, which will build a 54 gigawatt hours (GWh) factory in southern California’s Imperial Valley, also signed a letter of intent with renewable energy and lithium extraction company Controlled Thermal Resources (CTR) to purchase the mineral and geothermal power.

The company’s hyper-local business model will offer Statevolt “a significant advantage in producing lithium-ion batteries at scale”, Lars Carlstrom, Italvolt’s founder and chief executive, said in a statement.

Prices of lithium have soared over the past year as demand for the EV battery material rises, exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

CTR extracts lithium from brine, a byproduct of geothermal energy, from its Hell’s Kitchen lithium and power project in California.

Statevolt is undertaking due diligence to determine the best location for the factory.

 

  • Reuters, with additional editing by George Russell

 

 

READ MORE:

Carmakers Pressure Supply Chains for Cleaner Lithium – SMH

Global Energy Companies Push for New Lithium Process

Short-Seller Says Lithium Miner Firefinch is Wildly Undervalued

Tags:

George Russell

George Russell is a freelance writer and editor based in Hong Kong who has lived in Asia since 1996. His work has been published in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, New York Post, Variety, Forbes and the South China Morning Post.