According to foreign media reports, a new company called American Battery Factory (ABF) has announced that it will build a network of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery factories in the United States. The company plans to announce the partnership and its first production facility in the coming months.
ABF was founded by Lion Energy, a supplier of battery and solar products. ABF plans to produce lithium iron phosphate batteries for static equipment, as well as batteries for electric vehicles such as trucks, buses, trams, agricultural vehicles, electric bicycles, scooters, forklifts and heavy construction equipment, the company said in an announcement.
ABF says the batteries it produces are improved square batteries that can withstand more than 10, 000 charging cycles and are expected to last for 20 to 30 years. The company has yet to disclose details about the battery's chemical materials. ABF said it was in "active dialogue with packaging integrators, energy storage solution providers and other organizations to develop supply partnerships based on the United States".
The company did not say how many factories it would build in the United States, nor did it disclose information about its supply chain. ZhenFang Ge, chairman of ABF, said: "each factory will create 300 to 1000 high-quality jobs. As our production network expands, we will ease decades of U.S. manufacturing job losses caused by the closure of nearly 66000 U.S. manufacturing sites, and eventually make it possible for the United States and the world to switch to 100 percent renewable energy. Without batteries, the transition to a completely green energy economy is impossible. "
With a supply chain as localized as possible, ABF's goal is to "create a battery manufacturing ecosystem in the US". Currently, 80 per cent of LFP batteries in the US now come from China, and ABF also hopes to "make energy independence and the use of renewable energy a reality in the US".
