The private sector is moving ahead rapidly with investments in batterries. In October, Toyota announced plans to build a $1.29 billion US battery factory. Ford will build three US battery factories in the US and an assembly plant that will add 11,000 workers. And, GM will build four battey plants with LG Chem and hire 1,200 people each at its joint venture.
A Michigan startup, Our Next Energy (ONE), raised $88 million to further its R&D and build a US battery manufacturing facility. BMW iVentures led the funding round. ONE was able to demonstrate that its new lithium-ion battery technology has double the range of most EV batteries by holding a charge for 750 miles when tested in a Tesla model S. Other companies are working on solid-state batteries, which might be 10 years to market.
EV battery startups raised more than $3.6 billion in 2021, according to Crunchbase data, triple the $174 million raised in 2020 even when $3 billion from Svolt, a Chinese battery cell manufacturer, is subtracted. That represents more than double the number of deals. The momentum in 2022 continues with three deals that raised almost $290 million in January alone. Large automakers are the majority backers and even owners, keeping the supply chain close to home. Bloomberg, E&Enews, Reuters, crunchbase