December 11, 2024

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San Leandro

CA

United States

SAN LEANDRO (December 9, 2024) – Battery technology company Coreshell today announced the electric vehicle (EV) industry’s first commercial-scale 60 Ah battery cells made using an anode with 100 percent domestically-sourced metallurgical silicon (MG-Si). Coreshell’s MG-Si battery cells offer a tenfold increase in specific capacity compared to graphite anodes, while cutting material costs by up to 50 percent. In addition, the technology delivers a 29 percent reduction in carbon emissions compared to traditional LFP/graphite batteries. This advancement marks a key milestone in the company’s effort to revolutionize batteries with more efficient, sustainable materials and is particularly significant as China currently controls nearly 93 percent of the global graphite supply chain. 

The heavy reliance on Chinese graphite is a major vulnerability for the EV industry because China holds a near monopoly on graphite processing, giving them significant control over the supply and price of this critical material. Coreshell's ability to replace graphite entirely with domestically sourced metallurgical silicon offers a powerful advantage in reducing supply chain risks, enhancing sustainability, and driving down costs.

With its 60 Ah battery cells ready for commercialization, Coreshell is starting production at its newly-built 4 MWh manufacturing facility in San Leandro, California, while simultaneously moving forward with a 100 MWh facility, which is currently in site selection and design phase. In 2025, Coreshell will deliver A-samples of its 60 Ah battery cells to global automakers.

“While many battery innovations focus on range, we recognized that cost and scalability are the key hurdles for mass adoption, as today’s average consumer is still priced out,” said Jonathan Tan, CEO of Coreshell. “Our technology has proven to outperform graphite-anode batteries in terms of carbon emissions, cost, and scalability. We’ve quickly scaled from prototype 5 Ah cells to full 60 Ah automotive cells, using standard equipment from South Korea’s Top Materials. This technology allows us to produce batteries that are 25 percent cheaper per kWh than the current graphite-based batteries and 100 percent domestically sourceable in the US and EU.”

A Pathway to Mass-Market EV Adoption
Coreshell’s use of domestically sourced metallurgical silicon in combination with lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathodes addresses two major challenges facing the EV industry today—cost and scalability. Unlike synthetic silicon, which has been engineered to mitigate swelling and is up to 20 times more expensive than graphite, Coreshell’s approach uses unrefined metallurgical silicon as a starting point. This metallurgical silicon is half the cost of graphite on a per kg basis, but also has ten times the specific capacity of graphite anodes. The result is a lower-cost, higher-performing battery that can help drive mass-market adoption of electric vehicles.

Key Features of Coreshell’s 60 Ah Battery Cells:

• 100 percent Domestically-Sourced Metallurgical Silicon: Unlike synthetic silicon alternatives, Coreshell’s metallurgical silicon is derived from abundant, low-cost domestic resources, reducing supply chain risks and costs.
• Higher Capacity, Lower Cost: Coreshell’s battery cells achieve 10x the specific capacity of graphite anodes, while reducing material costs by up to 50 percent.
• Scalability and Standardization: The cells are produced using widely adopted infrastructure and equipment from leading manufacturers, allowing for efficient scaling and the potential for broad industry adoption.
• Improved Carbon Footprint: Coreshell’s technology achieves a 29 percent reduction in carbon emissions compared to traditional graphite-anode LFP cells, and a 16 percent reduction compared to NMC/graphite cells, according to life cycle assessments (LCA) conducted by Benchmark.

Accelerating Mass Adoption of Electric Vehicles
“Ferroglobe, as the global leading producer of silicon and ferroalloys, is proud to partner with Coreshell to reduce the cost of EV batteries and create a sustainable domestic supply chain for these critical materials,” said Benoist Ollivier, Chief Technology & Innovation Officer of Ferroglobe. “After testing their technology, coupled with our high purity products, we believe Coreshell offers the most viable pathway to mass-market EV adoption, leveraging the high energy density of silicon dominant anodes to reduce costs, lower CO2 footprints and accelerate the industry’s transition to clean energy.”

“We see tremendous potential in Coreshell’s battery technology,” said Hinrich Woebcken, General Partner at Trousdale Ventures and former Chairman and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America. “Cost and scalability are the two critical factors that will enable mass adoption of EVs, and Coreshell is positioned to address both challenges while also improving performance through the use of metallurgical silicon and making graphite-reliance unnecessary.”

Why Metallurgical Silicon?
Coreshell’s batteries are built on the use of metallurgical silicon (MG-Si), a more cost-effective alternative to graphite and synthetic silicon for battery anodes. Traditional lithium-ion batteries rely on graphite anodes, but these come with significant cost and performance limitations. Silicon, on the other hand, can store up to ten times the energy of graphite, increasing battery range. However, silicon has traditionally faced challenges with swelling and degradation over time.

Coreshell has addressed this problem by using a layer-by-layer solution-phase coating technique that allows for the use of larger silicon particles (microparticles) and mitigates swelling, enabling the use of cost-effective MG-Si in EV batteries.

“Our technology uses a fast, low-cost, scalable process that deposits thin polymer films on electrodes, reducing material waste and improving battery performance,” said Tan.

About Coreshell 

Coreshell provides the lowest cost, high performance silicon anodes on Earth. Coreshell’s proprietary technology unlocks the performance of metallurgical silicon, which has ten times the capacity at half the cost of current battery anodes. Headquartered in California, Coreshell partners include the leading global producer of high-purity metallurgical Silicon, battery manufacturers, and auto OEMs committed to the transition to clean energy.