Australian battery materials producer Sicona Battery Technologies plans to expand into the US battery component market by developing a commercial production facility somewhere in the southeastern US.

The company recently completed front-end engineering design studies and is advancing its plans for the phased development of a silicon-carbon anode materials plant that would produce 6,700 tons annually, near a growing battery and EV manufacturing hub.

Sicona plans to expand its US production capacity to a total of 26,500 tons annually by the early 2030s, which would be enough silicon-carbon anode materials to power more than 3.25 million EVs.

Sicona’s SiCx anode materials deliver an increase in energy density of more than 20% over conventional lithium-ion battery cells with graphite anodes and reduce charge times by more than 40%, the company said. Sicona uses a top-down production process using efficient mechanical silicon metal reduction to create uniform nanoparticles and specialised carbon coating treatment. The company has started supplying product samples and initiated offtake discussions with customers. It aims to ramp up qualification activities over the coming 12-18 months.

“We believe by going mass scale with our technology we can have maximum impact on increasing the adoption of electric vehicles. This is because our product has a real impact on the charge time of an electric vehicle or how far you can drive your EV before recharging, which are two major factors holding people back from buying an EV,” said Sicona co-founder Christiaan Jordaan.

Source: Sicona Battery Technologies