Looks like we have the same vision as Sila. Even the same wording. April 15, 2020
December 29th, 2020
HPQ FILES PROVISIONAL PATENT APPLICATION FOR SILICON BYPRODUCT CREATED BY PUREVAP™ QRR AS ANODE MATERIAL FOR LITHIUM-ION BATTERIES
PRELIMINARY BUT PROMISING RESULTS DEMONSTRATE A CAPACITY 3-4 TIMES GREATER THAN GRAPHITE FOR LITHIUM-ION BATTERIES PUREVAPTM QRR SILICON BY-PRODUCTS: A SUPERIOR ANODE MATERIAL THAN GRAPHITE ______________ Sila Nanotechnologies has developed a drop-in silicon-based anode that replaces graphite in lithium-ion batteries without requiring changes to the manufacturing process. The company claims that its materials can improve the energy density of batteries by 20% and has the potential to reach 40% improvement over traditional li-ion. Jan 28, 2021 - 03:06 pm
Sila Nano collects $590 million for 100 GWh plant - electrive.com
Specifically, the company is replacing graphite electrodes entirely with silicon-dominated composites. Gene Berdichevsky, co-founder and CEO of Sila Nano, expressed back in 2019 that his company’s approach would deliver an improvement of up to 20% and that it had even further potential compared to conventional Li-ion. Sila Nano is now outlining that potential in more concrete terms: Over time, a 50% improvement is achievable, we hear from their HQ.
The company based in California counts BMW and Daimler on its list of partners.
Jan. 28: Shift to Electric Vehicles Spurs Bid to Make More Batteries in U.S. - WSJ
Moving more battery production to the U.S. will help car companies and their suppliers bring down costs, a step that is important for consumers to adopt electric vehicles more widely, auto executives say.
Sila, a company co-founded by Mr. Berdichevsky, who helped design Tesla’s first battery packs, is specifically looking to increase anode manufacturing in the U.S.
The decade-old company, which in 2019 received backing by German auto maker Daimler AG , has focused its research on developing silicon-based anodes. Its executives say its anodes are capable of storing more energy than the graphite ones used in today’s batteries.
This latest investment round (Series F), led by Coatue Management and T. Rowe Price Associates Inc., values the company at $3.3 billion, Mr. Berdichevsky said.
“Billions of dollars of capital really needs to go into the ground to bring a new technology like this to scale,” he said.
Sila, which is already supplying some consumer-electronics companies, is looking to build a new factory to get its anode into vehicles by 2025, Mr. Berdichevsky said. The factory, when finished, is expected to make enough materials to supply batteries in more than one million cars annually, he said.
Other anode producers are also scaling up in the U.S.