Commercial EV company Cenntro Electric Group has established of a separate operating division and wholly owned US subsidiary to manufacture lithium-ion batteries.
Cennatic Power will make lithium-ion batteries for its parent company’s commercial vehicles in a purpose-built manufacturing facility at Aero Industrial Park in Monterrey, Mexico.
Construction of the 10,436 square meter (111,363 square foot) facility is complete and Cennatic expects to complete the production line installation by the end of this year and begin trial production in the first half of 2023.
Peter Wang, chairman and CEO of Cenntro Electric Group, said it was crucial for an EV company to control its battery supply and reduce its supply chain dependency from China.
He said: “The new facility’s strategic location in Mexico will enable competitive production and complements our strategy to open new assembly plants that are in customers’ markets to build our capacity.
“We are confident our in-house production and technology will support and improve our vehicles, allow for significant operational enhancement and reduce cost in battery cell production,” concluded Wang.
Battery recycling
In June, Cenntro and Princeton NuEnergy (PNE) formed a Strategic Partnership Letter of Intent for spent lithium-ion battery feedstocks for recycled cathode materials and byproducts.
The partnership aims to drive end-to-end sustainability in the EV sector using lithium-ion battery-powered vehicles and PNE recycling technology to reach net-zero emissions.
Princeton NuEnergy’s method involves mechanically separating the cathode and anode materials and running the cathode powder through a plasma reactor to remove contamination produced when cycling the batteries.
The team’s process uses low-temperature plasma and extremely reactive ionised gas that allows the plasma to carry out chemical reactions to remove contaminants from the cathode powder that would otherwise require very high temperatures.
