EV Battery Startup InoBat Auto to Visit Taiwan

EV battery startup InoBat Auto to visit Taiwan.

Slovakia-based battery startup InoBat Auto, developing lithium-ion batteries for EV and aviation sectors, will visit Taiwan in April/May to seek manufacturers and potential customers, as part of its plan to consolidate its global supply chain, company CEO Marian Bocek said in an interview.

Marian Bocek, CEO, said during a video interview with DIGITIMES Asia:

Europe is realizing that we have fallen behind Asia in terms of the battery supply, and we’re seeing big support of the European governments to support the cell battery production.

The Slovak executive is also a co-founder and managing partner of IPM Group, an asset management company that has US$1 billion in assets under management (AUM). He holds an MSc in finance from the University of Cambridge in the UK.

As of 2020, 78% of lithium battery production was rallied in the Asia-Pacific region, followed by Europe with 13% and North America with 9%. Europe will experience the fastest growth and contribute 33% of lithium battery production by 2030, data from the Automotive from Ultima Media in 2021 showed.

About 20-30 gigafactories will be built across Europe in this decade, and a number of players, including InoBat, are working on European projects, Bocek said.

The European Commission two years ago approved grants for a program called IPCEI (“Important Projects of Common European Interest”), with up to EUR6 billion allocated to support companies like InoBat Auto, Bocek said.

Its project “European Battery Innovation” project involves at least EUR2.9 billion in funding to support 42 direct participants, including InoBat Auto, as well as BMW and Tesla.

Batteries for on-road and aerial vehicles

Assisted by AI technology, the company can sift through 1,000 different chemical materials and find the best combination to derive the best battery solution, thus optimizing the manufacturing process, Bocek said.

It is targeting three market segments – buses, premium vehicles, and the urban air mobility market, he said.

In addition to partnering with Czech bus service supplier SOR Libchavy, InoBat Auto has been selected to create batteries for six-seater electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) vehicles which will be used to fly passengers from city to city, but it prefers to withhold the eVTOL developer’s name.

Diversified partnerships

Skimming through InoBat Auto’s press releases, one can see that it is quite resourceful.

Andy Palmer, who has worked in Nissan and Aston Martin, chairs InoBat Auto’s board of directors. The startup has also secured partners such as UK’s mining company Rio Tinto, India’s battery maker Amara Raja, and battery production equipment supplier Wuxi Lead Intelligent Equipment from China, among others.

It is also working with a Korean contract manufacturing company, Bocek said. “We’re happy to work with people who have been ahead of the game.”

Source: InoBat Auto; compiled by DIGITIMES Asia, March 2022

Taiwan’s appeal

“We’re looking to meet some of the major industrial groups in Taiwan,” Bocek said, when asked if the company’s delegation will meet with members of Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) and join its EV platform called Mobility in Harmony (MIH).

He could not name the companies at the moment, “but definitely the major players in Taiwan are on our agenda,” Bocek said.

InoBat Auto’s technical and manufacturing personnel will travel to Taiwan, while he hopes that he will be able to visit Taiwan later this year, Bocek said.

There will be government meetings as well, as the mission is coordinated by Slovak and Taiwanese officials, he added.

“We were talking to partners on contract manufacturing, as well as potential customers and integrators with whom we can partner to deliver a solution to the Asian market as well,” Bocek said.

“Taiwan is a great place in terms of R&D,” he continued.

“TSMC is a fascinating success story, and you’re covering 90% of the semiconductor chip production in the world,” he said. “The legacy of strong R&D and manufacturing has been also transferred to the battery space.”

The IPM group has invested in a semiconductor company called Tachyum, which is working with TSMC about chip production and is now coming into the final stages of development, Bocek said. “So we’ve met TSMC representatives several times.”

“Chips are playing a big part of the robotization of the gigafactories, and our future expansion of gigafactories obviously will have a strong degree of robotization automation . . . so definitely there will be Taiwanese engine for the chips in the robotic infrastructure in our factories,” he said.

Global outreach

InoBat Auto has about 70 employees, while its workforce will grow to over 100 by the end of this year, Bocek said.

It has recently opened a branch office at the University of Warwick Science Park’s Warwick Innovation Centre.

On March 25, InoBat Auto announced that it intends to locate its third gigafactory in Western Europe, saying the exact location will be determined within 2022. The previous two are planned in Slovakia and another location in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).

Its pilot line in Voderady, Slovakia, is due to be operational in early 2023 and targets an initial 1GWh of capacity once complete in 2024, InoBat Auto said.

InoBat Auto has a sister company called InoBat Energy, which works on energy storage, it said.

EV battery startup InoBat Auto to visit Taiwan, April 1, 2022