- Addionics developed a new foil current collector
- General Motors' GM Ventures backed Addionics with funding
- Addionics plans to build a factory in the U.S.
A startup aims to make EV batteries cheaper by focusing on an oft-overlooked battery component.
Addionics, which is backed by General Motors' GM Ventures venture-capital arm, has developed a new foil current collector, updating a component that "hasn't changed much in 30 years," CEO Moshiel Biton said in a recently published interview with TechCrunch.
BMW cylindrical battery cells
Current collectors help gather ions in battery cells, a process Addionics believes can be improved by creating aluminum and copper foils with tiny holes and undulating peaks and valleys. The idea of adding texture to improve current collectors isn't new, but it hasn't been commercialized at scale, Biton claims.
Foil material is made wavy and porous using techniques from the semiconductor industry. Addionics uses electroetching on the aluminum foil for battery cathodes. For the copper foil used for anodes, the startup uses electricity to deposit copper ions in a given configuration.
Audi battery assembly at Brussels, Belgium, factory
The result is a three-dimensional current collector that is easy to manufacture, while improving battery-level efficiency (already very high for EV batteries) and—most notably here—potentially doubling lifespan, Addionics claims. While Goldman Sachs earlier this year declared that EV battery prices are in the midst of dropping by 40%, some automakers like Toyota claim battery prices need to decrease further to make EVs truly affordable.
The startup announced earlier this year that it was planning to build a $400 million U.S. factory, and has also said it has letters of intent from unnamed automakers. As TechCrunch notes, sourcing battery materials from Addionics' U.S. factory could help automakers meet federal EV tax credit requirements for domestically-sourced content.
