Sila, the battery materials startup, started operations Tuesday at its facility in Moses Lake, Washington, a milestone that could pave the way for longer-range, faster-charging EVs. The factory, which will initially be capable of making enough battery materials for 20,000 to 50,000 EVs, is the first large-scale silicon anode factory in the West, and future expansion could fulfill demand for as many as 2.5 million vehicles.
Silicon anodes promise to improve the energy density of lithium-ion batteries by as much as 50%. The technology, which Sila has been working on for the past 14 years, could be the best chance for the U.S. to gain the upper hand in a global race for battery supremacy, Sila co-founder and CEO Gene Berdichevsky argues.
“When you invent something new, it’s a lot easier to then produce it where you invent it,” he told TechCrunch.
Sila currently has agreements to supply anode material to Panasonic and Mercedes. Though automakers and their suppliers will be the factory’s main focus, Berdichevsky said his company has also been selling to drone manufacturers, satellite companies, and consumer electronics companies.
The startup isn’t the only company working on silicon anode materials. Group14, which also has operations in Moses Lake, currently produces its proprietary mix at a factory it developed with SK Innovation in South Korea. Amprius, a company based in Fremont, California, is currently producing megawatt-hours’ worth of its material in the U.S. and gigawatt-hours’ worth with partners in China.
But Sila’s Moses Lake factory, which has been under construction for nearly two years, “is really the first auto scale silicon anode plant in the U.S.,” Berdichevsky said. The company raised $375 million last year to help finance the project.
In Washington State, Sila found a near perfect confluence of factors that allowed it to build the facility, including cheap hydropower, abundant land, and a nearby supplier of an important raw ingredient.
“The cost structure of this technology is predicated on low-cost energy — one of the big inputs — and then some key precursors, and we have that in Washington,” he said.
The first runs of material at the Moses Lake factory will be used to show customers the material is consistent with the stuff they’ve been sampling for the past few years, which was made at an R&D line in Alameda, California.
“We have a lot of confidence in that, but obviously the proof’s in the pudding,” Berdichevsky said.
In a few years, he said batteries made using Sila’s material should be cheaper than those made with graphite anode material sourced from Western suppliers. (Chinese companies make graphite anodes for less, but they also receive generous state subsidies and have fewer environmental regulations, Berdichevsky said.)
Silicon anodes could also allow automakers to reduce the amount of other pricey materials used in their batteries, including nickel, while maintaining the same level of performance. “Now you have that same performance, plus you get fast charge, plus you get domestic supply, and you get it at a lower cost,” he said.
If demand proves strong, Sila has plans to expand beyond Moses Lake.
“There’s not a CEO of a Western automaker that doesn’t believe that within a decade, or maybe 15 years at the limit, they’re going to be selling almost all electric vehicles.” Berdichevsky said.“ If you play it out 10 years from now, you probably have 10 million EVs in the U.S., so we’re going to need multiple sites.”
Eventually, the company will look to expand into Europe and Asia, too, but Berdichevsky, who was born in Ukraine, is adamant in his commitment to the United States.
“As a country, if you don’t make stuff, where’s your pride going to come from?” he said. “I think it’s just so important for us as a country to continue to learn to do this and create the ecosystem so that we can never fall behind again.”