Sodium ion battery start Natron Operations ceased this week, ending the company’s 12-year pursuit of technology commercialization in the United States
The company owns $25 million worth of Michigan factory orders, but it cannot be delivered until it is UL certified. according to For Raleigh’s News and Observer, the company reported the closure of the business as Natrom has been planning to bring work to North Carolina through its new facility.
However, getting UL certification can be a long process, usually spanning several months. Natron Investors refused to release more funds, and the startup faces a cash crunch.
Natron’s major shareholder, Sherwood Partners, tried to sell its shares but found no buyers. As a result, it is liquidating the company and laying off a few employees who will oversee the operational rainfall.
The shutdown is an example of a challenge to try to make batteries without consistent industrial policies. The road from a startup to a gigabit period usually takes ten years or more (a journey that lasts longer than most business cycles), and certainly longer than most investors fashion.
Natron is sculpting through a process called “the task of creditor interests” Substitution Chapter 7 Bankruptcy This could lead to the rapid and quiet sale of assets that abandon many liquidated court lawsuits.
The company has Announce A year ago, it will build a larger, $1.4 billion sodium-ion battery factory in North Carolina, capable of producing gigabit hours of prison cells each year and creating up to 1,000 jobs. Natron focuses on fixed storage and data center customers, and the lower energy density of sodium ions is not that worrying market.
Although sodium-ion batteries may be much cheaper than their lithium-ion competitors due to their abundance of sodium, a lithium-ion price war in China has weakened its potential. In the past two and a half years, lithium carbonate has been widely priced. 90% dropAccording to benchmark mineral intelligence.
Natron is just the latest casualties in a series of recent attempts to build large numbers of batteries outside of Asia.
June, Oregon Powin filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy As a result, no supplier of non-China iron lithium phosphate cells was found. The company uses these batteries to assemble grid-scale batteries.
Earlier this year, Swedish battery maker Northvolt also File for bankruptcy In its home country, the journey to the best opportunity for European competitors in their home country has ended. The company reportedly costs $100 million a month as it strives to master the large manufacturing industry. BMW canceled a $2 billion contract in June 2024 due to Northvolt’s inability to deliver.
A series of failures highlighted the difficulties of establishing a battery company outside of Asia, which has both developed mature supply chains and companies with extensive expertise over the past few decades.
If the U.S. or Europe is to successfully create domestic challengers for the Asian battery giant, it will be more than a decade or more, rather than the whip defined in the past 15 years. Given the political reality, joint ventures with companies such as Panasonic, LG Energy Solution and SK Innovation are more likely to succeed.
The best opportunities for Western battery manufacturing in China remain throughout Asia for the foreseeable future.
