Amprius Claims Big Step Forward on Next-Gen Li-ion Batteries – CleanTechnica

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We’ve been covering Amprius for … 12 years. From its early roots at Stanford (in 2008), to former US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu joining the board of directors (in 2014), to significant expansion of high-energy-density battery production at its facility in California earlier this year (an event we attended), the company has been trudging along while trying to develop world-changing technology. Here’s a discussion I had with CTO, Constantin Ionel Stefan, last year if you want to really dive into the company’s vision and progress:

The news now is that Amprius “has signed a non-binding Letter of Intent (‘LOI’) with a Fortune Global 500 technology OEM to develop a high-energy SiCore™ cylindrical cell for Light Electric Vehicle (‘LEV’) applications.” In other words, Amprius may be going big time. “The LOI demonstrates both parties’ intention to enter into a commercial supply agreement that will cover the next 5 years.”

Unfortunately, we clearly don’t have the name of the company, but we do get a peak into the potential scale of this supply agreement. “The Fortune Global 500 technology company has a strong presence in the LEV industry and is looking to enhance its product offerings through this strategic partnership with Amprius. The potential future business associated with the non-binding LOI could provide Amprius with battery production orders exceeding 2 GWh over the proposed contract’s duration.” It’s true — 2 GWh, especially over 5 years, is not an enormous amount when you think about the scale of battery leaders CATL and BYD. However, this is well beyond a pilot stage. This is serious scaling up of battery production and would mean that Amprius has proven itself. Is the sky the limit after that? Who knows, but the progress is significant and must feel absolutely enormous after more than a decade of working on this.

While we don’t really have insight on the cost-competitiveness of these batteries today or the company’s cost roadmap, they must not be too expensive at this stage for the performance improvements provided. Most notably, the batteries provide significantly more energy density than normal batteries. “Under this LOI, Amprius will design and deliver high energy density cylindrical cells based on Amprius’ SiCore anode chemistry with a 25% capacity improvement over the current industry standard. While the performance specifications are still being finalized, this development aims to substantially increase energy capacity, marking a significant milestone for both companies. Amprius has secured over 125 million SiCore cylindrical cell annual production capacity through contract manufacturing partnerships. Additional capacity will be available in 2025.”

Shipments of these Amprius SiCore cylindrical cells will begin this year.

You can’t go from zero to hero in a day. It takes time to scale up production and especially highly reliable and efficient production for commercial applications. It seems Amprius is entering its first serious scaling up of production. If that goes well, one has to think Amprius could grow to a much larger level. We will be sure to keep you posted on any progress.

“This partnership further demonstrates Amprius’ industry-leading battery performance and its ability to significantly improve product range and performance across a variety of industries,” says Dr. Kang Sun, CEO of Amprius Technologies. “As we continue to transform the electric mobility sector, we are beginning to make strong inroads in the light electric vehicle space. We are excited to add another Fortune Global 500 company to our robust list of customers who trust Amprius to power their devices and products. The batteries for this application will take advantage of Amprius’ new breakthrough SiCore cell chemistry and cylindrical cell design.”

The big question I have today still is: which Fortune Global 500 company is the deal with today? Also, which Fortune Global 500 company would it target next?