Microvast (NASDAQ:MVST) shares have now ignited their momentum engines as news is trickling in that the company is slated to receive a major slice of the federal funding that has been earmarked to promote battery production in the US.
— Microvast (@Microvast) October 19, 2022 To wit, Microvast has now tweeted that its “thermally stable polyaramid separator manufacturing plant proposal” is set to receive $200 million under the newly revealed $2.8 billion American Battery Material Initiative, which seeks to boost the production of electric vehicles in the US by facilitating battery manufacturing and domestic mining of requisite minerals. These funds will be distributed by the US Department of Energy to at least 20 entities across 12 states. Microvast is a vertically integrated battery manufacturer, producing its own cathode, anode, electrolyte, and separator. Lithium Titanate Oxide (LTO) cells are currently Microvast’s star product. These cells can be fully charged in 10 minutes and provide an energy density of 180 Wh/l or 95 Wh/kg. Crucially, these LTO batteries retain over 90 percent of their capacity even after 10,300 full charge/discharge cycles, according to a test report by WMG, an academic department at the University of Warwick in the UK. Microvast is also working on solid-state batteries with the aim of manufacturing cells with energy densities of over 1000 Wh/l. The company plans to increase its annual battery manufacturing capacity to 11 GWh by 2025. In recent years, Microvast has been promoting the use of its proprietary Polyaramid Separator in its cells. The company claims that the material is thermally stable up to 300 degrees Celsius and is currently being tested via a United States Advanced Battery Consortium grant. Additionally, Microvast licensed its Full Concentration Gradient (FCG) cathode tech – where a clear and gradual gradient in the transition metal content is produced, allowing precise customization of the cathode material – from Argonne National Labs in 2017. While the company is currently using LFP or NMC as its cathode, it plans to switch to FCG cathodes in the coming years. For the anode, Microvast either uses LTO or graphite but plans to switch to silicon (or silicon oxide) in the future. Finally, as far as the non-flammable liquid electrolyte is concerned, the battery manufacturer currently sources it from commercial suppliers and then prepares a blend solution in-house. At the time of writing, Microvast shares are up around 44 percent.
