Natron’s liquidation explains why the United States is not ready to create its own batteries

Start the sodium battery Natron The operations stopped this week, ending the company’s 12 -year pursuit to market its technology in the United States

The company obtained $ 25 million orders to its factory in Michigan, but it could not connect it until it obtained a UL certificate, According to To Raleight’s The News & Observer, who reported that the company was closed because Natron was planning to bring jobs to North Carolina with its new factory.

However, UL certificate can be a long process, often extending for several months. Investors benefited from Natron in issuing more money, leaving the startup in the face of a cash crisis.

The main shareholder in Natron, Sherwood Partners, tried to sell his share but did not find buyers. As a result, it liquidates the company and lay off all employees with the exception of a few employees, who will supervise the wind operations in the operations.

Closing is an example of challenges that come with an attempt to manufacture batteries without consistent industrial policies. It often takes the road to starting to GigaFactory a contract or more – a trip that lasts longer than most business courses – and certainly longer than most investor heresy.

Natron is carved through a process known as “the mission for the benefit of creditors”, An alternative to semester 7 bankruptcy This may lead to the sale of rapid assets and calm that abandons the actions of the court followed by many references.

The company was Declare A year ago, you will build a much larger 1.4 billion-dollar sodium batteries factory in North Carolina capable of producing Gigawatt-Hours cells per year, creating up to 1000 jobs. Natron focused on fixed storage clients and data center, and markets where energy density in sodium is no less.

While sodium Ion batteries have the ability to be much cheaper than their competitors in lithium ion due to the abundance of sodium, their potential has been undermined due to the war of lithium in China. In the past two and a half years, the price of lithium carbonate was immersed, 90 % decreaseAccording to Benchmark intelligence minerals.

Natron is only the latest injuries in a series of modern attempts to manufacture large quantities of batteries outside Asia.

In June, Oregon is based Boomin presented to obtain chapter 11 bankruptcy When I failed to find a non -Chinese resource for lithium phosphate cells. The company used cells to assemble network batteries.

Earlier this year, the Swedish Northfallt batteries manufacturer It was submitted to bankruptcy In her mother country, she ends the journey to get the best opportunity in Europe in a local competitor. According to what was reported, the company was burning through 100 million dollars per month because it is struggling to mastery of manufacturing on a large scale. BMW canceled $ 2 billion in June 2024 due to Northfelt’s inability to deliver.

The chain of failures highlights the difficulty of building batteries outside Asia, which, over the decades, has developed both mature supply chains and vast experience.

If the United States or Europe wants to succeed in creating local competitors to the Asian battery giants, it will take sustainable government support for a decade or more, not the squares that have set the past fifteen years. Looking at political facts, joint projects are likely to succeed with companies such as Panasonic, LG Energy Solution and SK.

In the foreseeable future, the West is still the best opportunity to manufacture local batteries through Asia.