Our Next Energy debuts exotic new battery made from cheap, abundant metal

The energy transition is just getting warmed up. For proof, see Our Next Energy. The Michigan-based startup is developing a trick dual-chemistry battery pack that’s the sort of innovation that’ll likely come to define the climate tech economy.

The heart of ONE’s technology is a battery management system that allows an EV to use two different cell chemistries, one for daily driving and the other for longer road trips. It’s an innovation that has allowed the company to look at materials that had previously been cast aside, those once thought unfit for EV duty.

“Why don’t we actually divide this into two problems, not one problem?” ONE CEO Mujeeb Ijaz

Manganese is one such metal, and today, ONE announced a manganese-rich, anode-free battery that can extend an EV’s range by an estimated 300 miles.

If the company can produce the cells en masse, it could help alleviate some of the EV supply chain crunch because manganese is quite abundant — only 11 elements are more commonly found in the Earth’s crust.

Our Next Energy debuts exotic new battery made from cheap, abundant metal by Tim De Chant originally published on TechCrunch