Michigan-based EV battery startup ONE cuts staff by 25%

Michigan-based EV battery startup ONE, Our Next Energy, has cut its workforce by 25% due to market pressures. One of the many players in the race to develop an LFP battery pack on North American soil, ONE is one of the most valuable privately held companies in the US and plans to build a $1.6 billion gigafactory in Michigan.

The company, headquartered in Novi, a suburb of Detroit, announced yesterday that it has cut 128 salaried and hourly workers from its staff of roughly 500 people as part of a “revised business plan,” according to a statement emailed to various sources. The company kept the reasoning succinct and a bit vague, noting that the decision was “in response to market conditions.”

Earlier this year, the company closed a $300 million Series B funding round, which brought its valuation to $1.2 billion – making it one of the most valuable privately held battery companies in the United States.

ONE, led by former Apple executive Mujeeb Ijaz, is one of many such companies in the US working on manufacturing LFP battery cells and developing a domestic battery supply chain to benefit from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. Founded in 2020, ONE is now delivering prototype versions of lithium iron phosphate battery packs to several companies for testing, with the aim of producing battery cells next year at a new $1.6 billion factory in Van Buren Township, Michigan.

Last week, GE Vernova, a spinoff of General Electric, announced that it had signed a term sheet for the supply of LFP modules from the company.

ONE says its battery pack is designed to cut costs by up to 50% and provide up to 600 miles of range. ONE says it will launch a larger multi-GWh scale LFP line next year, with plans to expand its factory to create 2,100 new jobs in Michigan. 

Despite warnings about EV demand slowdown, investors have been dumping money into battery startups like ONE. Battery startups have raised about $5.2 billion from investors this year. ONE’s closest competitors include KORE Power and American Battery Factory, which are also making bids to be among the first LFP manufacturers in the US for battery energy storage systems. South Korea’s LG Energy Solution and China’s Gotion are also building gigafactories in the US.

Photo: Our Next Energy