Improved Batteries for California’s Zero - Emissions Vehicle Future

Cuberg is a startup company headquartered in San Leandro, California that aims to develop lithium metal battery cells, the first of their kind to be commercialized, with a focus on applications in the aviation and electrical vertical takeoff and landing industry. Cuberg is building a groundbreaking lithium metal battery system with exceptional power output, reduced weight, and cycle-life that can become a battery for electric aircraft applications, eliminate carbon emissions from additional car and truck use, and pave the way for other exciting new mobility applications such as drones or even ships.

This project funded the setup and commissioning of a pilot-scale production facility for manufacturing lithium-metal battery pouch cells. Cuberg batteries have already accomplished an energy density of 50 percent greater than current lithium-ion batteries, and this capacity is expected to only increase. Moreover, the tradeoff between power and energy is much less severe than in lithium-ion cells. Cuberg has already achieved power of up to 2500 watts per kilogram, and it anticipates reaching even higher power targets.

Cuberg’s main goal in undertaking this project was to achieve two key outcomes: produce high quality cells and provide these cells for testing and screening. The first commercial format fiveamp-hour (5Ah) lithium metal cell with non-flammable proprietary electrolyte was the focus of this grant.

Cuberg used a capital-efficient approach to scale up by contracting with a low-cost manufacturer to produce dry lithium metal pouch cells (cathode, separator, anode, and packaging) to Cuberg’s specifications. With this approach, Cuberg avoided more than 95 percent of the capital expense typically required to scale up a new battery technology to pilot production while maintaining tight quality control over intellectual property. By the end of the project, the product prototype was able reach a technology readiness level of TRL 8, allowing the company to sell prototypes to customers for evaluation. In addition, Cuberg has been able to dramatically increase yields from 50 percent up to 80 percent; the increase to the targeted 90 percent is now just an iterative process.