ev batteries Do you think the US can capture a larger share if not lead the EV battery race?

[G. David Felt]

In reading the write up at electrek, this got me to thinking about the current state of Li-ion batteries where China controls the world Li-ion supply by owning 75%. As such all major battery production companies produce a heavy amount of their batteries in China and ship across the world.

The current 46th administration of the US has committed $400 billion to buying / using US made batteries in a wide range of products, auto's military, etc. and part of this is to spur investment by US tech startups to drive forward aggressively in moving into solid state battery packs that use various minerals that are not controlled by China.

To quote the story at the link below:

Wall Street believes this too, as it has recently backed battery startups in going public. Analysts are quite optimistic that EV sales have nowhere to go but up in the next decade. These startups include silicon valley based Sila Nanotechnologies Inc., which just raised $590 million in new wall street funding. Romeo Power went public last year and is developing lithium-ion battery technologies out of California. Meanwhile, Lithium Americas Corp. is based in Canada but also operates in the US. This startup recently sold $400 million worth of stock in a public offering in order to finance a new lithium project in Nevada. Wonder if any other automakers are working on batteries in Nevada?

Most of the funding for these startups is going toward factory construction and streamlined battery manufacturing processes. However, while these tremendous rounds of public funding are encouraging to the future of a US EV battery market, small companies lack the battery resources required to scale toward genuine competitiveness.

In support of gm's EV agenda, LG Chem is building a massive battery production plant in Ohio. Tesla is drastically expanding production in Nevada.

While China is the leader big time with control of the Lithium, Nickel and Cobalt and a grow influence in graphite, the US startups have found numerous ways to build solid state batteries using other elements from copper, aluminum, etc. Creative alternatives focused on solid state batteries which has many numerous advantages over the Li-ion battery packs could make a huge difference. Chattanooga Tennessee is on the map as multiple large scale battery production plants are being built to support various auto companies. An Australian-based company called Novonix LTD. has built a factory in Tennessee. They are using Synthetic graphite they produce for their own anodes. Here they have already made a huge inroad as they will produce in the US for shipment to Korea for use by Samsung SDI Co. in their Samsung batteries replacing China made graphite.

The US companies are small and clearly need to grow and ramp up fast. As the article states below, the US has a fighting chance by ramping up on battery capacity, shorter and more efficient supply chain (yes China uses lots of manual labor compared to robotic labor) and innovative alternatives to current Li-ion battery materials.

Sounds off and let us know what you think. Can the US take a larger share of the battery market?

How the US plans to capture the EV battery market - Electrek