Nathan Hostettler, Head of R&D at ELEQTRION, presents at Cycle Momentum. Cycle Momentum is a specialized accelerator for cleantech startups, offering personalized programs and investor access to build globally competitive companies. Followed by Q&A. Quebec, Canada Feb 21, 2025.
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Hello everyone, my name is Nathan from ELEQTRION and I’m here to show you how we are revolutionizing batteries with aluminum. Nowadays, 98% of the batteries are coming from China and are lithium based. That means that each of the components of these batteries will turn three times around the globe before ending in your smart watch, in your car or in your house. There was a need to have something changing with batteries and this is the very reason why ELEQTRION was created.
If we stay on the same course, electrification of society will need more batteries and more materials. Staying with lithium will require 300 new mines by 2030 to accommodate the demands in strategic materials like lithium, nickel and cobalt. 300 is twice as much as what we have today. This is just not possible and we need a alternative.
What we propose is to use aluminium and carbon to make batteries, materials that are abundant, a supply chain that’s already at scale and simplified, no geopolitical risk and all of that bringing some price stability as well to the system.
What we are producing is pouch cells, in the position the cylindrical cells might be more familiar with. So a flat battery, very adapted to a large panel of application and much easier as well to manufacture. The main feature of a battery is safety. It doesn’t catch on fire and that’s a game changer. It is also fast charging, high energy density and at control costs.
Our message is let’s simplify batteries. Let’s go from a system where you have six different metals mixed up together, very complicated supply chain, very complicated recycling as well to a system where you have only two. You can imagine these two materials being split up and re-injected into the value chain after recycling which is much easier processed than what would have been done with lithium nowadays.
The aluminium ion landscape, only a few companies are actually developing this kind of technology, pretty much one on every continent and we believe it is time for North America to have its very own big scale aluminium ion battery. A small word is here about APHE power in Taiwan. They built their very first Giga factory aluminium ion and thats motivated us even more to bring that technology to market today.
The market is huge for batteries. It’s expected to be $1 trillion US over the next few years. Different segments of course of the markets. The one we focus on right now is energy storage. This is not because the technology is not applicable to the other type of market but we believe this energy storage market has the lower barrier for entry compared to the others so that’s the one we are focusing on right now.
Zooming into the battery storage market by 2027, this market will be $100 million in Canada, $10 billion in North America and $150 billion worldwide at a growth rate between 20 and 25%.
Our technology in this concept has tremendous advantage compared to the competition. The fact that the battery doesn’t heat up, you can remove the need for HVAC system, remove noise and weight from it. You can also put the system much closer to habitation.
The safety of the technology makes the certification much more quicker and also cheaper for the end users.
So far our development has been focused into de-risking the technology, working with academics and industrial partners. This year and next year the goal is to go with industrial partners to scale up the technology and the goal is for mass production between 2027 and 2028.
Now we know this technology, building a Giga factory will be out of hand. The goal is not to go into this kind of process. We want to keep the capex as low as possible and we want to outsource the production with a manufacturing partner.
Talking about partners, we already have a handful of them between academic and industrial. Similar partners are very important because these are funding partners as well. We are already talking with two of the biggest aluminum producers in the world for potential strategic partnerships and also with the first client for early testing of batteries by the end of the year.
With this strategy we’ll have our first revenue in 2025 before the sales of samples, bringing all of that to 2027. With the start of the production in 2028, a huge revenue peak. With that strategy we’re also a break-even in four years.
What we need today to make it happen is $2.5 million Canadian, split with the three different sectors. First, R&D. We need to optimize the battery, especially the lifetime of the battery. For that we also need key personnel to hire and make sure the system is actually rolling properly. We also need some funding for business development and to find this early project we can actually test the battery into.
Our team, ELEQTRION, is managed by a very senior executive. First and foremost a very dedicated CEO, William, in the room as well. Two other co-founders, Philippe and Ali, Robert, our COO, and myself, the Head of R&D and supply chain, with the rest of the technical team, of course. We believe that this team is the right one to bring that technology to market right now.
Thank you very much for listening and join us to Revolutionize Batteries with Aluminium!
(Q&A Follows)