- FREYR reaches major milestone by successfully conducting automated casting trials of electrodes with active electrolyte slurry at Customer Qualification Plant (“CQP”)
- FREYR expects to make functional battery cells for customer samples using full automation of CQP in H1 2024, which is the Company’s top strategic priority
- FREYR expects to submit Part 2 of its Title 17 application to U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office in Q1 2024
- Year-end 2023 cash and equivalents balance of $275.7 million exceeds previous guidance of $250 million
NEW YORK & OSLO & NEWNAN, Ga.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–FREYR Battery (NYSE: FREY) (“FREYR” or the “Company”), a developer of clean, next-generation battery cell production capacity, has provided an update this morning on the Company’s operational progress at the Customer Qualification Plant (“CQP”) in Mo i Rana, Norway; and a financial update on FREYR’s cash position at year-end 2023.
FREYR casts electrodes with active electrolyte slurry
FREYR’s team at the CQP reached a key milestone by producing automatically casted electrodes with active electrolyte slurry in a dry room environment starting on January 31, 2024. The introduction of active electrolyte slurry and the safe commencement of dry room operations was one of the most significant remaining milestones before completing the Casting and Unit Cell Assembly commissioning packages and the anticipated start of automated CQP production on the 24M Technologies (“24M”) SemiSolidTM platform. Automatic production of active cathodes and anodes is the next major milestone in documenting the viability of the SemiSolid platform at GWh scale. These first casting trials with active electrolyte slurry mark a significant achievement towards reaching that milestone.
“I am happy to report that FREYR has surpassed another key precursor to finalizing commissioning and starting fully automated production of cells at the CQP,” commented Mike Brose, FREYR’s Head of the Asset Mo team. “By demonstrating our ability to operate safely and effectively under dry room conditions in accordance with our internal timeline, our people and partners are now approaching landmark achievements on the path to scaling the next generation 24M SemiSolid technology.”
A key distinction between the 24M SemiSolid production platform and conventional lithium-ion battery manufacturing technology is the order in which electrolyte is introduced to the process. In the 24M process, electrolyte is added at the start of cell processing, which eliminates the costly and energy intensive step of solvent recovery by drying the electrodes. As such, demonstrating the ability to cast electrodes with live electrolyte is a critical milestone on the path to eventually producing B sample cells for customers.
CQP commissioning status and key next steps
Following the successful electrode casting trials with active electrolyte slurry, FREYR has completed handovers of 363 (94%) of the 388 discrete production line equipment commissioning and testing packages at the CQP.
The final technical milestones to commence automated cell production at the CQP are:
- Successfully conducting production trials on the anode casting system with solvent slurry before proceeding to casting with active anode slurry.
- Integrating the casting webs across the cathode, anode, and merge units of the Casting and Unit Cell Assembly equipment using the highly complex Multi-Carrier Systems (“MCS”).
“I am excited by the progress our people, in close collaboration with our partners, have made in recent weeks at the CQP to bring the 24M SemiSolid technology platform online at an unprecedented scale,” added Birger Steen, FREYR’s Chief Executive Officer. “The remaining work on the Casting and Unit Cell Assembly equipment is highly complex and technically demanding. Nevertheless, I am encouraged that we are nearing the achievement of FREYR’s top near-term priority: making functional battery cells for sampling to our customers using the full automation of the production line equipment at the CQP in the first half of 2024.”
As previously announced, FREYR has secured conditional offtakes and one long-term sales agreement totaling approximately 130 GWh of cumulative capacity. At prices of $70-$80/kWh, these offtake agreements could equate to revenues of $9 – $10 billion. Providing B sample cells to customers that are produced with the full automation of the CQP production line equipment is imperative to converting conditional offtakes and long-term sales agreements to binding, financeable commitments.
U.S. Department of Energy Loan Programs Office Update
FREYR’s team continues to process Part 2 of its Title 17 application to the U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) Loan Programs Office. The Company expects to submit the completed Part 2 application to the DOE during Q1 2024.
“FREYR continues to believe that contributing to the development of a U.S. battery value chain by scaling 24M’s U.S.-based technology platform is a potential source of long-term competitive differentiation,” commented Oscar Brown, FREYR’s Chief Financial Officer. “The deployment of 24M’s next-generation SemiSolid process at FREYR’s Giga America project is core to that strategy and is intended to align with the objectives of the Inflation Reduction Act.”
Year-end 2023 cash balance exceeds previous guidance
FREYR ended 2023 with $275.7 million of cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash, or $1.97 per common share1, compared with previous guidance of $250 million. As previously announced, FREYR will report full financial results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2023, on February 29, 2024.
About FREYR Battery
FREYR Battery is a developer of clean, next-generation battery cell production capacity. The Company’s mission is to accelerate the decarbonization of global energy and transportation systems by producing clean, cost-competitive batteries. FREYR seeks to serve the primary markets of energy storage systems (“ESS”) and commercial mobility, and the Company maintains an ambition to serve the passenger electric vehicles market (“EV”). FREYR is commissioning and operating its Customer Qualification Plant (“CQP”) for technology development in Mo I, Rana, Norway, and the Company is commencing development of the Giga America battery manufacturing project in Coweta County, Georgia, in the U.S. To learn more about FREYR, please visit www.freyrbattery.com.
Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
All statements, other than statements of present or historical fact included in this letter, including, without limitation, the development, construction, timeline, capacity, and other usefulness of FREYR Battery’s (“FREYR”) production facilities or gigafactories; FREYR’s ability to complete commissioning of its Customer Qualification Plant (“CQP”) and to achieve targeted improvements and the commencement of automated production of in-spec, customer-testable cells; FREYR’s ability to complete the technical requirements to stay on track with its anticipated completion cadence at the CQP; FREYR’s ability to carry out any successful future trials, implementation or integration of cathode testing and other technology to reach automated cell production; and the implementation and effectiveness of FREYR’s overall business and technology strategies are forward-looking statements.
These forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from the expected results. Most of these factors are outside FREYR’s control and are difficult to predict. Additional information about factors that could materially affect FREYR is set forth under the “Risk Factors” section in (i) FREYR’s Registration Statement on Form S-3 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on September 1, 2022, (ii) FREYR Battery, Inc.’s Registration Statement on Form S-4 filed with the SEC on September 8, 2023 and subsequent amendments thereto filed on October 13, 2023, October 19, 2023, and October 31, 2023, (iii) FREYR’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 27, 2023, and (iv) FREYR’s Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on May 15, 2023, August 10, 2023 and November 9, 2023 and available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Except as otherwise required by applicable law, FREYR disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking statements, all of which are expressly qualified by the statements in this section, to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this presentation. Should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results and projections could differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements.
FREYR intends to use its website as a channel of distribution to disclose information which may be of interest or material to investors and to communicate with investors and the public. Such disclosures will be included on FREYR’s website in the ‘Investor Relations’ sections. FREYR also intends to use certain social media channels, including, but not limited to, X (former Twitter) and LinkedIn, as means of communicating with the public and investors about FREYR, its progress, products, and other matters. While not all the information that FREYR posts to its digital platforms may be deemed to be of a material nature, some information may be. As a result, FREYR encourages investors and others interested to review the information that it posts and to monitor such portions of FREYR’s website and social media channels on a regular basis, in addition to following FREYR’s press releases, SEC filings, and public conference calls and webcasts. The contents of FREYR’s website and other social media channels shall not be deemed incorporated by reference in any filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.
1 Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash per common share is a non-GAAP financial measure calculated by dividing cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash by outstanding common shares (139,705,000 as of December 31, 2023). Management believes that this alternative measure of cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash is helpful for investors to understand the amount of our Company’s cash balances relative to our outstanding share base.
Contacts
Investor contact:
Jeffrey Spittel
Head of Investor Relations
jeffrey.spittel@freyrbattery.com
Tel: (+1) 409 599-5706
Media contact:
Amy Jaick
Global Head of Communications
amy.jaick@freyrbattery.com
Tel: (+1) 973 713-5585
