Swiss Clean Battery AG (SCB) announced on April 8 that it will build a gigafactory with an initial capacity of 1.2GWh and a maximum capacity of 7.6GWh in Switzerland. SCB is a startup that was just established this February. Its HQ is in Frauenfeld, which is near Zurich.
The gigafactory will be developed over multiple phases. For the first phase, the company will invest CHF 246 million to acquire equipment and around 20,000 square meters of facility space. The annual output of the first phase is estimated to reach around 7.2 million cells. The annual turnover of the first phase is estimated to reach around CHF 318 million. SCB currently plans to complete the first phase and begin production by 2024. It aims to sell its products worldwide by that time.
When the entire gigafactory is completed, it will span an area of around 100,000 square meters. Its annual output is estimated to come to almost 48 million cells, and its annual turnover is estimated to exceed CHF 2 billion. To fund the construction of the gigafactory, SCB will take on debt financing and launch an IPO this October.
CEO and COO of SCB are respectively Peter Koch and Dr. Thomas Lützenrath. Koch is also the COO of High Performance Battery AG, which licenses its technology to SCB. According to SCB’s own press release, its sustainable solid-state battery is “extremely durable, non-combustible and at least 50% better in terms of environment performance than conventional lithium-ion batteries”. Notably, this solid-state battery requires no rare and expensive metals such as cobalt. It is also more durable against deep discharge and fast charging.
Furthermore, SCB claims that it has found a solution to the main technical issue in the development of solid-state battery: forming a stable connection between the solid ion conductor and the electrodes. Instead of taking a modular approach that treats the ion conductor as one of several individual components, SCB has made it into a “multi-component adhesive” that effectively facilitates ion transportation. All in all, the plans for a gigafactory and an IPO are indications that SCB is very confident in the competitiveness of its product vis-à-vis conventional lithium-ion batteries.