BMW and Daimler's partner-battery materials company Sila Nano announced a new financing of 45 million US dollars (about 316 million yuan), and hired two new executives, one of whom was a director of the Tesla battery team A veteran of more than ten years in a position-Kurt Kelty.
According to Sila Nano, Kelty, who served on the Sila Nano Advisory Board, has been appointed as the company's vice president of the automotive department. In addition, the company also hired Bill Mulligan, former executive vice president of global operations at SunPower, as chief operating officer.
Prior to this, Kelty served as senior vice president of operations for indoor vertical farm company Plenty, but the most well-known section of his resume was his previous work at Tesla, Kelty was once considered to be between Tesla and battery partner Panasonic Key link.
On November 4th, local time, Sila Nano stated that it received a new US $ 45 million in funding from the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, bringing its total funding to US $ 340 million (approximately RMB 2.39 billion) . Earlier this year, Sila Nano also raised $ 170 million (about 1.195 billion yuan) from the Series E financing led by Daimler. The latest funds and the expansion of the leadership team have made the company's market value more than 1 billion US dollars (about 7.03 billion yuan), which can help it bring the first batch of batteries to market.
Sila Nanotechnologies has developed an embedded silicon-based anode that can replace the graphite anode in lithium-ion batteries without changing the manufacturing process. The company said its materials can increase the energy density of the battery by 20%, and compared with traditional lithium-ion batteries, the overall performance can be increased by 40%.
The battery has two electrodes, an anode (negative electrode) and a cathode (positive electrode). The electrolyte is located between the anode and the cathode, and serves as a guide for the movement of ions between the electrodes when the lithium-ion battery is charged and discharged. Graphite is a common anode material for commercial lithium-ion batteries, but silicon anodes can store more lithium ions.
Many people are studying to replace graphite with silicon to make more room for adding active materials, thereby increasing the battery energy density, that is, the energy stored per unit volume of the battery. The use of silicon materials can help reduce costs and make batteries cheaper, while also storing more energy in the same space.
Sila Nano said that the battery made by its innovative method can be used in consumer electronics products such as wireless headphones and smart watches, as well as electric vehicles and even grid energy storage.
The company began construction of the first batch of battery material production lines in 2018. In April this year, Gene Berdichevsky, CEO of Sila Nanotechnologies, said that the production line can produce materials for 50 MW lithium-ion batteries. Gene Berdichevsky was also one of the early employees of Tesla, and was responsible for the development of battery technology for Tesla Roadster models.
On the same day, Sila Nanotechnologies also said that it will continue to increase production and plans to supply consumer electronics to the first commercial customers next year. The company also said it plans to bring batteries to market with battery partner New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (Amperex Technology, formerly the power battery division of the New Energy Technology Group) and automotive partners BMW and Daimler.