Gus Technology Co (格斯科技), a lithium-titanate-oxide (LTO) battery cell and pack maker, on Wednesday launched its first large-scale battery factory and said it is in discussing with potential customers to quadruple its battery capacity to meet fast-growing demand.
The NT$4 billion (US$130.3 million) fab, in Taoyuan City’s Jhongli District (中壢), is to start operations in the third quarter, with an initial capacity of 250 megawatts per year.
The schedule is ahead of Gus Technology’s local competitors, including Taiwan Cement Corp (台泥), Formosa Group (台塑集團) subsidiary Formosa Smart Energy Tech Corp (台塑新智能科技) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密).
Photo courtesy of Gus Technology Co
The fab is expected to reach full capacity of 1 gigawatt per year by the second quarter of next year, the company said.
The company counts Japan’s Kaneka Corp, Toshiba Corp and InnoBat Auto of Slovakia, the European pioneering supplier of premium batteries for electric vehicles, as its major customers.
Once the fab is 100 percent utilized, it would produce 6 million high-end LTO battery packs per year, which would translate into an annual revenue of NT$6 billion to NT$9 billion, Gus chairman Chang Chung-chieh (張忠傑) said during the launch ceremony on Wednesday.
The company plans to produce battery cells used in high-end automated guided vehicles and home battery storage systems at the fab in the initial stage, Chang said. Next year, it will start shipping battery cells used in electric vehicles, given a longer qualification process with carmakers, he said. The company is also expanding its business scope to battery cells used in unmanned aircrafts, he said.
Gus also focuses on developing battery materials used in next-generation NCM batteries, which compose of lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese.
Gus, an eight-year-old company based in New Taipei City’s Sijhih District (汐止), said new capacity expansions are being planned, as customers’ demand for its LTO battery packs would surge to more than 4 gigawatts within next three years, Chang told reporters.
Chang said the uptake of LTO battery soft packs are increasing, especially for cars, as such soft-pack batteries are 15 percent lighter than the traditionally hard square and cylindrical battery packs and can be used under extreme temperatures from minus Celsius 40 degrees to 60 degrees. Besides, its LTO soft-pack batteries made by Gus can be recharged and discharged 10,000 times.
Gus on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with its customer Midwest Energy Pvt of India to build a LTO battery pack in India, with most funding from the Indian company.
Other factories could be built with potential customers abroad, the company said.
The company also signed two MOUs with Echion Technologies of the UK and Beyonder of Norway to make LTO batteries on a contract basis.
Gus would also cooperate with its international partners in aspects such as battery cell anode materials, energy storage equipment and raw materials, it said.
LTO batteries charge faster than conventional lithium-ion batteries and are safer.
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