How an ex-Tesla engineer's new US plant will make electric car batteries cheaper

Sila Nanotechnologies is investing in a new plant in Washington state due to open in 2024

Machines on a battery tray assembly line at a Mercedes-Benz electric vehicle Battery Factory. The price of electric car batteries had plateaued rather than falling since 2003. Reuters

A battery start-up founded by a former Tesla engineer announced plans for US-based mass production of next-generation materials aimed at cutting costs, boosting driving ranges and reducing the industry's reliance on China.

Sila Nanotechnologies will invest in the low hundreds of millions of dollars in a new plant in Washington state due to open in 2024, Sila chief executive Gene Berdichevsky told Reuters.

He said that since Tesla was founded in 2003, the price of electric car batteries had plateaued rather than fall as much as expected, so new materials could help lower the cost to consumers.

Car maker Daimler has a minority equity stake in unlisted Sila, which is also working with BMW. Sila raised an additional $590 million last year, boosting its valuation to an estimated $3.3 billion.

Sila will use the new plant in the city of Moses Lake to make silicon-based anode materials that can store 20 per cent more energy than anodes that typically use graphite, 70 per cent of which comes from China, Mr Berdichevsky said.

Graphite is on the US critical minerals list but silicon is not, as President Joe Biden's administration aims to reduce reliance on China in the battery supply chain.

Sila's new plant aims to deliver annual silicon-based anode production sufficient to power 10 gigawatt hours of batteries in 100,000 electric vehicles, with a goal of increasing the capacity to power two million electric vehicles a year, Mr Berdichevsky said.

The company runs a test production unit at its headquarters in Alameda, California, that can produce battery materials for about 1,000 cars a year, though it is instead making materials used in fitness watches.

Sila was trying to address the challenges of scaling up production to meet the needs of car makers, he said.

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk announced a plan to use silicon-based anode in its new batteries at its Battery Day event in 2020 but it is not clear whether it is using the breakthrough technology. Tesla did not respond immediately to a request for comment.