solid state battery maker Factorial Energy raising $200
million in a series D round led by Mercedes
Benz and sell antis envy Factorial produces batteries
for electric vehicles and it says the funding will
be used to accelerate commercial production and deployment
Of its solid state battery technology which the company
says it's safer and offers up to 50% more
driving range than current lithium ion technology here.
Now discuss is the ceo of Factorial Energy. See you. Hello Wong.
See you welcome to the show.
Such a pleasure to have you now before we get to
the work your company's doing with automakers like Mercedes Benz,
can you offer more details about Factorial solid state batteries and why
Factorial claims they are a better energy alternative than lithium ion batteries?
Sure,
absolutely great to meet you Hannah here and I'm really excited to share
with you that factorial is is well positioned to bring the energy density of
the battery by additional 50% as hand I just mentioned and I would
say that extends the driving range of electric vehicles as the next generation.
As you know that the safety has been the the pending issues because of
the rising of energy density that actually bring a lot of safety issues to the
battery and that's why that's what we're striving for is to balance not only have
a higher energy density but also bring a really safe batteries to the market.
Factorial has joint development agreements with
Mercedes Benz with Hyundai with Kia.
Can you talk about how you're working with these companies here.
Yes.
So this is a really in depth collaboration with all this O E
M's um that we have established over the past year and the,
the O E M relationship started with a
lot of testing strenuous testings with their electrification system
and it also includes a lot of collaboration with the cell level and and
battery level collaborations and with module and
pack integrations down the down the road.
So it's it's extensive collaboration,
not only from technology level but also from supply
chain and the vehicle integration and and battery collaboration.
So I would say that's a really strong um deep,
deep bonding relationship with all the 40 E M's.
As you just mentioned,
Factorial says it will use its new funding to
build a new pilot production plant in New England.
Can you tell us when that plant will be finished and what it will entail?
We're looking at early 2023 to have it that finished and this is really the first
pilot scale plan that factorial is building.
We're a company that's being very ling and wanted to put
our hands down on the technology and and what technologies developed,
we wanted to uh put our efforts in um commercialize it and bring
the technology and to the scale that our customers needed for the battery testing
Bacterial also plans to fully commercialize its technology as soon as 2026.
What has to happen for your company to reach that goal to you?
Um, I would say there are a lot of challenges out there in the market.
It's not to say we're, where there's no challenge at all.
Um, but we're the first company that delivered the 40 empower sell, uh,
in solid state that works at room temperature to the market.
And I would say by overcoming that hurdle between five and power to 40 empower today.
That's an automotive relevant sites of the cell really bridged the gap.
Um, on the commercialization, the scallop
moving forward.
I was a building a strong supply chain and building the manufacturing capabilities
are going to be the key as we talk about E V adoption.
Are you worried at all,
are concerned that there won't be enough Evie charging stations or
the infrastructure to support the E V acceptance that we're seeing?
I would say that's definitely ecosystem we have to build all together.
Um, I'm not a ceo of the E V charging company,
but I would say the more the merrier that all the fundings and infrastructure
availability that's needed is definitely going to speed up the e V adoption.
Do you think the long range batteries will be somewhat of a solution here?
Absolutely.
Um,
this long range will help us mitigate a lot of range
anxiety that as we're seeing in the market with consumers.
Um, and also reduce um, a more needs on the charging station requirements.
Um,
and it's also going to strike a lot of balance
with existing combustion engine and with the consumer using habits.
Sure, well, it's great to talk to you. Thank you so much for coming on.
See you how wong ceo of factorial energy. We hope you come back. Thank you.