Farasis Energy Guide – Generation Eight

About

Farasis Energy is a Chinese-based, multi-national, battery cell supplier with over 3,500 employees.¹

They develop and manufacture battery pouches for electric vehicles, including Zero Motorcycles and Arcimoto. Their R&D focuses on transportation, energy storage, and heavy machinery.² Farasis specializes in stabilized lithium-ion cathode material which is rich in manganese and lacks cobalt, an expensive mineral common in many battery chemistries. ³

Farasis got its start in California and has since expanded into China and Europe.

History

2002 – Farasis Energy started in Silicon Valley, CA

2009 – Founded Ganzhou office in Jiangxi

2011 – Supplying battery systems to motorcycle companies worldwide

2016 – Began large-scale shipments to domestic auto OEMs

2018 – Initiated a partnership with Daimler and investment from CRHC

Leader in lithium-ion pouch cell shipments to China 2017-2019

2020 – Started mass production in Zhenjiang and went public on the Shanghai Exchange⁴

Partnered with TOGG to assemble modules and packs for the automaker as well as develop the Turkish market and surrounding region.⁵

Production

Farasis owns and operates five factories between China (two producing, one in planning), the US (planning), and Germany (planning).⁶ Cells are produced using hydropower, wind, and solar energy.⁷

The Bitterfeld-Wolfen plant in Germany is expected to produce 6 GWh of batteries with production slated to begin in 2022. The initial investment will be $600M and will produce nickel, manganese, and cobalt batteries since they believe newer compositions are not ready for mass production yet. ⁸ ⁹ 2,000 additional employees will be hired to work at the CO₂-neutral factory.¹⁰ For the European market, Talga supplies Farasis with coated anodes for final assembly.¹¹ The company’s European business plans to produce 10 GWh per year over time.

In China, Farasis is in the process of injecting $1B to increase production to 20 GWh at its Zhenjiang factory.¹²

In addition to their factories, the company also utilizes three R&D locations across China, the United States, and Germany.¹³

The company has raised over $1.8B since 2018.¹⁴ Their latest round of funding from Daimler Chrysler is unknown but presumably brings their total raised capital to well over $2B.¹⁵

Key Executives

Yu Wang is Cofounder and CEO of Farasis Energy, having started the company with Keith Kepler in 2002. Prior to starting Farasis, Yu was an energy scientist at E-One Moli and Polystor Corp. for a total of five years. Both companies specialized in battery technology.¹⁶

Keith Kepler is Cofounder and CTO of Farasis Energy since its inception in 2002. Keith has a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After graduating, he worked at the Argonne National Laboratory before working alongside Yu at Polystor as the Director of R&D.¹⁷

Blues Pi is the Chief Strategy & Business Development Officer at Farasis. Prior to joining the company, Blues held a number of high-level business development roles across the automotive industry including eight years at Magna International as the Business Development Director for Asia. Blues holds two engineering master’s degrees, one for metal engineering and the other for material science.¹⁸

Tom Walker is the Director of Engineering at Farasis. Before joining Farasis in 2018, Tom spent 26 years in a variety of engineering roles spanning industries such as life sciences, aerospace, and battery technology. Notably, Tom was a Senior Mechanical Engineer at Zero Motorcycles, one of Farasis’s largest customers. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from UC Boulder.¹⁹

Thanh Nguyen is the VP of Sales and Marketing, Americas and EMEA at Farasis. Thanh has worked in numerous roles since 1988 such as senior engineer, product manager, director of sales and marketing as well as being a member of multiple advisory boards. For 4 years, Thanh worked for Johnson Controls in its Power Solutions group which focused on lithium-ion technologies. Thanh graduated from Regis University with a master’s in business administration after obtaining a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Penn State University.²⁰

Involvement with Arcimoto

Currently Arcimoto is utilizing Farasis Energy.²¹ Farasis will add additional production capacity in the United States and Europe.²² This will enable lower costs for Arcimoto, reduced lead time, and decrease the likelihood of logistical delays concerning the physical distance and political climate between the US and China. As of May 2020 Farasis was conducting site selection in the US.²³

The FUV platform uses pouch cells from Farasis Energy, which are the same as Zero Motorcycle’s batteries. Arcimoto developed their own interconnect system for the batteries using a “novel way of crimping bus bars.” The cells combine to a total of 19.2kwh in the FUV battery pack. The battery is capable of accepting level 2 charging, however the company plans on making their fleet vehicles handle higher charging rates.²⁴

Arcimoto is willing to work with Tesla, one of the leaders in battery technology, to supply Arcimoto with batteries. This option will further reduce their costs (shipping and materials) and improve the performance of their vehicles. However, no formal announcements have been made at this time.

Appendix

Legal

Farasis Energy, among others, were sued for patent infringement by Celgard, a subsidiary of Polypore International, in 2019. The suit has been filed in the United States and the United Kingdom.²⁵ The US lawsuit is currently awaiting a jury trial as it is seeking damages.²⁶ The UK suit is currently in progress and an injunction towards the sale of relevant products in the UK market has been instituted.²⁷

The lawsuits highlight the growing market for lithium-ion batteries and the resulting increase in competition.

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Last updated: 12/9/20