Lithium-sulphur battery maker Lyten has stepped in and snapped up the lithium-metal battery manufacturing facility and cell-making equipment of Cuberg, the subsidiary shut down by Sweden’s Northvolt in August as part of rationalisation moves.
Lyten said it will take over Cuberg’s lease of a 119,000 sq ft facility in San Leandro, 30 minutes from Lyten’s San Jose headquarters. It includes manufacturing, office and warehouse space. Lyten will make additional equipment investments to expand the facility’s capacity.
Financial details were not disclosed and Lyten did not answer questions about the future of the Cuberg workforce.
Lyten said it intends to invest up to $20 million in 2025 as part of a plan to expand the San Leandro and San Jose facilities to deliver up to 200MWh per year, at full capacity, of lithium-sulphur batteries. The San Leandro commercial production is due to begin in the second half of 2025 as part of its commercialisation.
Dan Cook, Lyten’s CEO and co-founder, said: “The acquisition of additional manufacturing capacity for lithium-sulphur is in direct response to fulfilling customer demand more quickly.
“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.”
Lyten intends to deliver lithium-sulphur cells for defence, drone, micromobility and other energy storage purposes. It said the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act mandates the acquisition of domestic batteries.
Celina Mikolajczak, Lyten’s chief battery technology officer, said: “Lithium-sulphur 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-sulphur production though the acquisition of lithium-ion assets.”
Lyten’s investors include Stellantis, FedEx, Honeywell, the Walbridge Group and the European Investment Fund.
