US Lithium-Sulfur Battery Production Lyten Expands - DRONELIFE

November 13, 2024 by Miriam McNabb Leave a Comment

by DRONELIFE Staff Writer Ian J. McNab

Lyten, a San Jose-based materials company focused on the battery space, announced today that it will acquire Cuberg’s San Leandro lithium-metal battery manufacturing facility and cell making equipment. Lyten intends to convert the facility to lithium-sulfur and expand capacity to enable up to 200 MWh of lithium-sulfur battery production in the Bay Area at full capacity.

As part of the agreement, Lyten will take over Cuberg’s 119,000 square foot facility in San Leandro that includes manufacturing, office, and warehouse space. Lyten will acquire Cuberg’s battery cell development and manufacturing equipment and make additional equipment investments.

Lyten intends to invest up to $20M in 2025 as part of an ongoing plan to expand the San Leandro and San Jose facilities to deliver up to 200 MWh per year, at full capacity, of US manufactured Lithium-Sulfur batteries. San Leandro commercial production is intended to begin in the second half of 2025. The facilities will manufacture sulfur cathodes, lithium metal anodes, and assemble lithium-sulfur cells for commercial customers.

“The acquisition of additional manufacturing capacity for Lithium-Sulfur is in direct response to fulfilling customer demand more quickly,” said Dan Cook, Lyten’s CEO and co-founder. “Our customer pipeline has grown nine-fold since the start of 2024 and now numbers in the hundreds of potential customers. We are now working to allocate capacity from both San Leandro and our previously announced Reno gigafactory.”

Celina Mikolajczak, Lyten’s Chief Battery Technology Officer, stated, “We are thrilled for the opportunity to continue the buildout and expansion of the San Leandro facility to accelerate delivery of Lithium-Sulfur batteries to customers. The facility fits perfectly into our strategy of building US leadership in the manufacturing of next generation batteries and will enable Lyten to scale our domestic materials supply chain more quickly.”

Dan Cook added, “The speed of Lyten’s manufacturing expansion represents a timely move to assist the U.S. Department of Defense and the military services in complying with the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which mandates the acquisition of domestic batteries.”

Lyten, which currently produces batteries on its semi-automated pilot line in San Jose, last month announced plans to build a gigafactory in Nevada capable of manufacturing up to 10 GWh of lithium-sulfur batteries annually utilizing a US materials supply chain. The first phase is expected to come online in 2027.

“Lithium-Sulfur is a highly manufacturable battery that can be produced on standard lithium-ion equipment used throughout the world today. We intend to use this advantage to continue to opportunistically expand Lithium-Sulfur production though the acquisition of lithium-ion assets,” added Mikolajczak.

Lyten’s Lithium-Sulfur batteries are up to 40% lighter than equivalent lithium-ion cells and 60% lighter weight than lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. Lyten’s use of low cost, local materials (as opposed to expensive rare earth metals) make Lyten lithium-sulfur a lower cost alternative to traditional solutions, with performance that can significantly exceed traditional lithium-ion batteries.

According to the press release, strategic investors in Lyten include Stellantis, FedEx, Honeywell, and the Walbridge Group. Earlier this year, Lyten announced it has partnered with leading defense manufacturer AEVEX Aerospace to demonstrate lithium-sulfur battery powered unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) that are fully compliant with the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act’s (NDAA). Lyten also recently announced that its battery cells were selected for testing aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2025, a project funded by the Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU).

More information on Lyten is available here.

Want DRONELIFE news delivered to your inbox every weekday? Sign up here.

Read more:

Miriam McNabb is the Editor-in-Chief of DRONELIFE and CEO of JobForDrones, a professional drone services marketplace, and a fascinated observer of the emerging drone industry and the regulatory environment for drones. Miriam has penned over 3,000 articles focused on the commercial drone space and is an international speaker and recognized figure in the industry. Miriam has a degree from the University of Chicago and over 20 years of experience in high tech sales and marketing for new technologies.For drone industry consulting or writing, Email Miriam.

TWITTER:@spaldingbarker

Subscribe to DroneLife here.

Filed Under: Drone News, Drone News Feeds, News, Products, Sensors Tagged With: Cuberg acquisition, defense battery technology, domestic battery production, drone battery supply chain, lithium-metal facility, lithium-sulfur batteries, lithium-sulfur drone batteries, Lyten, NDAA-compliant batteries, US battery manufacturing