Stellantis is investing in company that plans to make lithium-sulphur EV batteries
The difficulty of securing raw materials for electric vehicle batteries and the sometimes troubling stories about how those materials, such as cobalt, are mined show a few of the challenges that the coming EV revolution must overcome to be considered sustainable.
But one of the Detroit Three is putting some of its money behind a possible alternative.
Jeep- and Chrysler-parent Stellantis is announcing an undisclosed investment in a Silicon Valley company that aims to produce a different kind of EV battery at scale than the lithium-ion version currently powering so many electric devices, including cars.
Instead, Stellantis’ venture capital fund is investing in Lyten, which specializes in a material that it expects will make lithium-sulfur EV batteries a reality.
Lyten’s lithium-sulfur batteries, should they become a successful alternative, could take not just the cobalt, but also the nickel and manganese out of the EV supply chain. Sulphur is much more readily abundant as a waste product and could be sourced in local markets unlike some of those other materials, according to the companies.
Lyten is promoting its use of a material called graphene, which won a couple of scientists from the United Kingdom the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010, as the solution for how to make lithium-sulphur batteries meet their potential.
