Lithium-ion batteries have dropped 75% in costs over the past decade. This is a surprising research and development that is not the result of a singular breakthrough, but the result of countless incremental improvements.
Few people know that it’s better than Chaitanya Sharma, the founder of Stealth’s Early Materials. Sharma worked for more than two years at Tesla’s Giga Factory in Nevada and two other major IM3NY, a lithium-ion manufacturer in New York.
Since leaving IM3NY in November 2023, he has been working on new ways to process cathode materials in lithium-ion batteries. This is one of the small improvements that promises to continue reducing costs. The initial new process can improve the cathode energy density by up to 12% and cost 30%.
“In my opinion, developing new exotic chemistry is not the way I want to go,” Sharma told TechCrunch. “I want to develop new ways to make materials.”
Sharma’s manufacturing-focused approach attracted early investment. Nascent recently raised $2.3 million in the seed round led by SOSV, the company told TechCrunch exclusively. New Jersey Innovation Evergreen Fund and UM6P Venture also participated.
The first focus of startups is to make lithium ion-phosphate (LFP) and lithium-manganese-iron-phosphate (LMFP). Recent improvements have brought LFP energy densities closer to high-end nickel-based and cobalt-based chemicals, but at much lower costs.
However, there is still room for improvement. Sharma said IM3NY, which contributed to the company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in January, is getting consistent quality materials.
The problem stems from supply chain inequality. Larger players like Tesla’s GigaFactory, which operates in partnership with Panasonic, tend to get more consistent material, Sharma said. “By the way, small players who spend between $100 million and $200 million on factories also get outliers.”
“That really made me want to launch early materials because I want to provide consistent materials to all my customers,” Sharma said.
Cathode materials tend to be in powders and may appear to match the naked eye, but slight variations in grain can have a significant impact on the end result. Sharma said he also promised to develop processes that use less energy in the early days, creating particles that are more consistently sized and shaped. This will pack more firmly with the material and increase energy density.
This process offers additional supply chain benefits. He said low purity raw materials could also be used. Although the early days focus on LFPs and LMFPs today, Sharma said it plans to expand to other chemicals GM will introduce in 2028, including Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt (NMC) and Lithium-Manganese Rich (LMR).
Its domestic focus addresses critical industry dependence. Today, the majority of cathode materials are made in China.
“Why don’t you rely on China for them?” Sharma said. “That’s really what we’re focusing on: simplifying the supply chain and making local ingredients available, reducing costs.”
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