Skip to main content

A mysterious “well-funded” battery maker is inviting product manufacturers to a “secret” unveiling of its new cell

GvMTFpB

An undisclosed company, which claims to be a “well-funded American company”, purchased advertising in the Wall Street Journal to invite a “select” group of people to the unveiling of its research and data on a new high-energy density battery cell.

The mysterious company is only inviting representatives from “product manufacturers listed on the NYSE or NASDAQ having a market capitalization of more than $500 million”. Investment bankers, venture capital companies, government representatives, or members of the press are not allowed to attend the event.

The company’s full-page ad redirects readers to a website called mooreslawbattery.com.

On the website, the company claims that battery performance could double every two years like computing, hence the name of the website. It also says that the company will be announcing a “new family of battery materials”.

The group shared two graphs about energy density and cyclability. It’s far from clear what the company plans to reveal based on these charts, but it looks like we are looking at gravimetric energy density over 300 Wh/kg. In comparison, Tesla’s cells are believed to be around 240 Wh/kg.

mooreslaw battery

But of course energy density is not all. The cells need to be able to withstand thousands of cycles without major degradation, have decent power density and of course have the potential to scale at a reasonable cost.

During an investor conference with Baron last year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk described how the company rates new battery technology developments:

“At this point we have quite a good understanding of all the battery technologies in the world. Right now, we track about 60 different efforts around the world to develop improved batteries and some of them hold some long-term promise. We rate all of them from one to five, where five is we should be doing business with them and one is complete BS.”

At the time, Musk said there were no four or fives, but there were some threes, and some might eventually be promoted to fours.

I really hope ‘Moores Battery’ turns out to have an interesting product, but my fear is that when you have an interesting product, you don’t really need to work that hard to create hype about it with a full-page ad in the Journal without even having a product yet, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.

The company didn’t disclose the date or location of the event, but it said it will be held in early April 2016. April Fools anyone?

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Stay up to date with the latest content by subscribing to Electrek on Google News. You’re reading Electrek— experts who break news about Tesla, electric vehicles, and green energy, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow Electrek on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Don’t know where to start? Check out our YouTube channel for the latest reviews.

Comments

  1. Julien Gélinas - 8 years ago

    With all new battery technology coming out these days, which are for now in prototyping stage, I wouldn’t be surprised if a “well funded American company” has found a way to manufacture one of these profitably. I don’t think it’s an April Fools, but I guess we will not be informed soon about this. Most likely we will hear about it when it’s integrated in an actual car, so it can sell immediatly.

    Looking forward to this.

  2. Stephen Davies - 8 years ago

    It this is Tesla, will they invite Apple? They seem to fit the requirements.

  3. ncbrisson - 8 years ago

    My guess of who it is would be either A123 systems or 24M technologies Inc.

  4. Max Newman TeslaFun - 8 years ago

    my guees behind this, Jeff Chamberlain described on tedx talks https://youtu.be/_Bfcm6s75OA?t=16m34s

  5. BEP - 8 years ago

    Wow, I’m so excited! A shady startup has a new battery technology, and, according to some scarce data they release, their prototypes’s performance is barely better than the well-proven, finely-tuned technology that Tesla has been using for years.

  6. WalksOnDirt - 8 years ago

    Their cycle life chart looks terrible for a car. Better luck next time.

  7. Illuminati - 8 years ago

    Tesla is working with new cathode and anode materials for its next-generation battery that will be produced in the Gigafactory.

    The rumors speak of Nickel Cobalt Aluminum/Manganese cathode with Water-based electrode solvent. Silicon synthetic-Graphene anode, and ionic gel electrolyte.

  8. Farhan - 8 years ago

    If given the opportunity to work with specific technology..
    Optimising the efficiency of the same could be doubtlessly possible…
    It’s only possible when an dedicated potential team has given opportunity ..
    Looking forward ….

Author

Avatar for Fred Lambert Fred Lambert

Fred is the Editor in Chief and Main Writer at Electrek.

You can send tips on Twitter (DMs open) or via email: fred@9to5mac.com

Through Zalkon.com, you can check out Fred’s portfolio and get monthly green stock investment ideas.