Ex-Tesla Engineer Building Silicon Anode Plant As U.S. Amps Up EV Battery Production

Sila, a battery materials startup cofounded by one of Tesla’s earliest engineers and backed by Mercedes-Benz, is building a large-scale factory in Washington State to make battery anodes that use silicon instead of graphite, which the company says will make electric vehicle battery packs more energy-efficient and, eventually, cheaper.

The Alameda, California-based company, led by CEO Gene Berdichevsky, is converting a 600,000-square-foot industrial building on 160 acres in Moses Lake, Washington, into a high-tech factory that will produce enough anode materials for batteries in up to half a million electric vehicles annually in its first phase. Over time the plant, which will begin operations in 2024, could scale up to produce enough of its silicon-based anodes for batteries in millions of EVs. Power for the facility will be zero-carbon, supplied by Washington’s hydroelectric grid.

Investment in the initial phase will be in the “low nine figures” and the full build-out will be “well over $1 billion,” Berdichevsky tells Forbes, without elaborating. The company has said Daimler and BMW will be the first users of its materials in high-end electric models.

“First and foremost we’re pushing for higher energy density,” he said, estimating that Sila’s anodes provide up to a 20% improvement in energy efficiency to the best current lithium-ion battery packs when graphite anodes are replaced. They can also enable faster charging or hold down pack costs by reducing the number of cells needed to go the same distance. “If you’ve got a vehicle that has 1,000 cells in it and it gives you the range you want when each battery stores 20% more energy you can go from 1,000 cells to 800 cells. Now the vehicle is lighter and it’s cheaper to make.”

Sila’s news comes a day after the U.S. Energy Department said it’s providing $3.1 billion in federal funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill to dramatically boost domestic production of advanced batteries and materials for electric cars and trucks. The Biden Administration wants EVs to make up half of all U.S. auto sales by 2030 and hopes expanded U.S. production of vehicles and batteries will help meet that goal. Sila will likely apply for some of the federal funds for its Moses Lake project, assuming it meets the DOE’s requirements.

Tesla is currently the biggest U.S. maker of EV batteries, producing them at its massive Gigafactory in Nevada and ramping up output at its new Giga Texas plant in Austin that will produce the company’s new, bigger 4680 battery cell, along with vehicles. General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen and other automakers have announced plans for new battery plants, while cell suppliers including Samsung, LG and Panasonic are also increasing U.S. production.

“President Biden’s historic investment in battery production and recycling will give our domestic supply chain the jolt it needs to become more secure and less reliant on other nations—strengthening our clean energy economy, creating good-paying jobs, and decarbonizing the transportation sector,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Monday.

Berdichevsky was Tesla’s seventh employee, hired in 2004 as principal battery engineer for the Roadster, the company’s first attempt at an electric car. By the time it came out, he was more interested in finding new ways to make the lithium-ion batteries he was working with a lot cheaper and more efficient. He cofounded Sila in 2011 and has raised $925 million over the past decade, including about $600 million in early 2021, to develop its silicon-based technology and fund the first phase of the Washington plant.

Anodes are one of the four main elements of a battery, along with the cathode, separator material and electrolyte. The active material it’s coated with, typically graphite, lets electric current flow through the external circuit and also allows absorption of lithium ions from the cathode. Currently, most anode materials for lithium-ion cells are sourced from Asia, Berdichevsky said.

“This plant would be the first kind of world-scale plant for us. We’re going to use it as a blueprint and replicate it in the U.S. and we’re going to replicate it around the world, in Asia and in Europe,” he said. “We’ll start by getting adopted in high-end vehicles and our partnership with BMW and Mercedes . . . but as production increases this will get adopted across many, many OEMs in many different-use cases.”

Along with Mercedes-Benz, investors in closely held Sila include 8VC, Bessemer Venture Partners, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Coatue, In-Q-Tel, Matrix Partners, Sutter Hill Ventures and T. Rowe Price funds.