Once finished this billion-dollar facility will pump out lithium-sulfur batteries for all sorts of micro-mobility rides like scooters and e-bikes plus for defense and space uses like drones and satellites. This unique combo makes their cells have even more energy density than the usual nickel-manganese-cobalt flavors, all while being cheaper to produce than the low-cost lithium-iron-phosphate option.
Northvolt has been having a bit of a rough patch recently né?. Then in September they had to lay off an additional 1600 employees – around 20% of their crew – and put the brakes on a couple of planned factory expansions.
Will the cost cuts and deal with Lyten be enough to help Northvolt weather the storm? Just last week Bloomberg reported that Northvolt needs to raise nearly $1 billion to keep things afloat; apparently the company is burning through around $100 million monthly.
While Northvolt is going through some tough times Lyten is cruising along.
This San Jose-based startup is gearing up to start construction on a factory in Nevada next year set to have a 10 gigawatt-hour capacity. This should bring in some cash while they prep for the mega-factory in Nevada.
According to PitchBook, Lyten has scored a total of $476 million in funding with a valuation of $1.17 billion, including a hefty $200 million round from last year.. Lyten a cool battery startup from Silicon Valley dropped some big news today – they’re snagging some manufacturing assets from Northvolt a Swedish battery company that’s running low on cash.
As a part of this deal Northvolt is selling off the manufacturing gear they got when they scooped up Cuberg another battery startup back in 2021. Lyten is also taking over the lease for Cuberg’s old manufacturing spot in San Leandro California né?. Plus, they’re skipping out on graphite for their anode, which can be tricky due to some export restrictions from China né?. They’re aiming to get it up and running by 2027.
With Lyten snagging Northvolt’s Cuberg assets, they now have the gear and space to produce up to 200 megawatt-hours of lithium-sulfur batteries right in the Bay Area né?. They’ve been struggling to ramp up production of lithium-ion batteries and even missed a big order from BMW, which led to the automaker backing out of a €2 billion contract.
To save some dough, Northvolt decided back in August to shut down research and development at the Cuberg site, resulting in almost 200 job cuts né?. They’re planning on throwing $20 million into expanding their operations in San Leandro and San Jose next year.
Nobody from Lyten or Northvolt has spilled the beans yet on the financial deets of the deal.
Lyten is doing things a bit differently than most battery makers – they’re going the sulfur route instead of nickel, cobalt, or manganese for their cathode materials né?
