One of the big roadblocks to consumer adoption of electric vehicles is concerns about range or the battery holding its charge. Group14 is looking to alleviate that issue with its lithium-silicon batteries, which it says charge faster and hold energy longer compared to other batteries. One major automaker is so confident in Group14's batteries that it has made a major investment — Porsche AG led a Series C round of $400 million that Group14 will use to build a commercial-scale factory and work with Porsche to make batteries for one of its subsidiaries. Rick Luebbe, CEO of Group14 Technologies, joins Closing Bell to discuss how the company will use Porsche's funding, how its batteries compete with the industry standard, expansion and growth plans, and more.

Closing Bell

Lithium-Silicon Battery Company Group14 Powers Up With $400 Million Series C Led by Porsche

on Cheddars news. So let's say you're looking into buying an E. V. But you're nervous about range and how long the battery will hold a charge? Well, one company is on a mission to ease that anxiety and it's got a big boost from a major automaker. Group 14 makes lithium silicon batteries and Porsche is so confident in their power and capability that has invested $400 million dollars into the company joining us now is rick, looby ceo of Group 14 technologies and rick I said silicon batteries, not lithium ion or anything like that. So what makes your batteries different from others in the market? That's right, Ken We're commercializing silicon batteries here at group 14 and they are radically different than a traditional lithium ion battery. They really enhanced performance in exactly the way, you know, an E. V. Or consumer electronics or even a grid storage customer might be looking for. So I think, you know, to the most important characteristics are a significant increase in energy density. So you know, up to a 50% increase in potential range and in the navy for example, and then also charge rate. And so, you know, one of the big concerns in in from a new E V customer is, is what they might call charge anxiety. You know, how long is it going to take me to recharge my E. V. S silicon battery technology can recharge an Evian under 10 minutes. And this is a radical improvement over what we see with traditional with modern batteries. So why haven't I seen silicon batteries everywhere? Is this technology new? Is it more expensive? Why haven't I seen it? You know, the industry has been trying to make silicon working batteries for 15 years and uh, you know, the industry has recognized the benefits are there, but to really struggle with coming up with just the right chemistry to get those benefits out of silicon without any negative side effects. And it grew 14, we've come up with that solution, our material solution or silicon carbon composite material, fundamentally solves all those challenges traditionally seen with silicon batteries. And it's going to be the enabling technology for this transformation. So solely is the technology and the chemistry that was keeping folks away from the silicon batteries. But is there any difference in price when it comes to those batteries compared to lithium ion. You know, if you think about the benefits in in energy density, for example, from a silicon battery system, you know, if we can increase the energy density by 50%,, you know, at the pack level, at the car level, you can get the same range and still pull a third of the cells out of the pack. That's a tremendous cost savings. So, fundamentally, that increase in energy density is the enabling technology to bring costs down. We can use smaller batteries, smaller batteries are cheaper batteries. And how will we use the funding from Porsche? So, we're building, we're building our second factory here in Washington state. You know, the objective is to build a factory that can support up to 600,000 Dvds per year from this facility? And how will you work with the automaker on tv battery production? Are you guys building a facility together or what's going on? So in this respect, you know, Porsha subsidiary self force is our customer, so we'll make our silicon battery and the material and we will sell it to sell force and they'll integrate that into batteries and then integrate those into packs for Porsche. Now, when it comes to silicon, does that face the same challenges that lithium ion batteries face when it comes to raw materials and the fact that it's more difficult to get your hands on them? So on the end outside, you know, our silicon battery technology, all the components are sourced domestically. They're all readily available and, and low cost and and what's important to us, that group 14, we can produce those materials and we can procure those materials in a, in a relatively carbon neutral way. So beyond the money you got from Porsche, why do you want to work with them? They're the technological leader in the automotive industry. You know, one of the best, one of the best automotive companies historically and, and they recognize that this transition from internal combustion TVs is coming and they want to be ahead of it. And they want to have the very, very best technology? And that is group 14 silicon battery technology. So is there any other plans for expansion or plans to work with another major automaker down the line? We're actually working with a broad spectrum of automakers globally and so, you know, Porsha of course, as an investor in a close partner is, is getting a lot of our attention, but all of our customers are important and we expect to be enabling really a broad transformation in the automotive industry over the next number of years. My last question for you is, what else can your batteries be used for? Why stop at the car? So right now everyone is excited about the electrification of transportation because a lot of attention generates a lot of, a lot of capital investment etcetera. But our technology plays in virtually any energy storage applications. So consumer electronics TVs of course, a focus for us today. We're really excited about electrifying aviation, you know, the same benefits that increase in energy density is enabling technology for electrification, aviation grid storage very important to us, you know, the same value prop in in TVs and consumer electronics will also help us deploy cheaper, more, more readily available systems for grid storage in the future. Very interesting rick levy ceo of Group 14 technologies. The technology sounds pretty incredible. I'm glad it's finally here, appreciate your time. Thank you for joining us