US Startup Lyten (Nonetheless) Goals For A Lithium-Sulfur EV Battery

Final Up to date on: seventh August 2025, 11:00 am

The excessive profile European power storage agency Northvolt crashed and burned final 12 months, and the US startup Lyten has been busily selecting up the items. Lyten’s major aim is to dominate the US and European markets for low-cost battery power storage programs, however earlier in the present day the agency additionally reminded everybody that it has been engaged on a lithium-sulfur EV battery with Stellantis.

Lithium-Sulfur Tehnology, Coming Finally To An EV Battery Close to You

Lithium-sulfur expertise has been taking the great distance round to the electrical mobility market. Nevertheless, EV battery innovators have been drawn to sulfur as an affordable, ample materials that avoids the availability chain points nipping on the heels of standard lithium-ion expertise.

Ideally, a lithium-sulfur EV battery additionally weighs much less and prices lower than a heavier, dearer lithium-ion counterpart. As well as, the lithium-sulfur system can deploy present Li-ion battery manufacturing strains on a drop-in foundation, enabling battery makers to shave prices by transferring present amenities over to the brand new expertise.

There being no such factor as a free lunch, battery innovators like Lyten have needed to tackle efficiency challenges associated to each mechanical and chemical degradation, and now the clock is ticking on industrial deployment.

For Lyten, the clock began in Could of 2024, when it started delivery samples of its new pouch-type EV battery to US and EU automakers. The samples had been produced at Lyten’s pilot-scale facility in California.

A Lithium-Sulfur EV Battery With A Graphene Twist

The Stellantis connection surfaced on the CleanTechnica radar late final 12 months, when the beleaguered automaker introduced a brand new joint EV battery improvement cope with the Texas lithium-sulfur startup Zeta Vitality. That was a little bit of shock, contemplating that Stellantis had already staked out a strategic funding in Lyten again in 2023. Nonetheless, the Zeta hookup signifies that the automaker goals to wrap its palms round a lithium-sulfur EV battery as quickly as doable. Within the case of Zeta, which means on or earlier than 2030, which is simply across the nook.

“For purchasers, this implies probably a considerably lighter battery pack with the identical usable power as modern lithium-ion batteries, enabling larger vary, improved dealing with and enhanced efficiency,” Stellantis emphasised in a press assertion final December.

On its half, Lyten is concentrated like a thousand factors of sunshine on its core expertise, Lyten 3D Graphene™. “Our 3D Graphene presents distinctive resistive, capacitive, inductive, structural, and power absorbing properties that may be infinitely tuned to ship profound outcomes,” Lyten enthuses (see tons extra graphene background right here).

To attract extra consideration to its EV battery efforts and different automotive purposes for 3D Graphene, Lyten has expanded its ongoing relationship with INDYCAR Expertise to launch its new Lyten Motorsports division.

“Lyten is already using its 3D Graphene platform to construct lithium-sulfur batteries approaching 2X the power density of lithium-ion whereas eliminating 85% of the mined minerals, together with elimination of nickel, cobalt, and graphite,” Lyten famous in a press launch saying the brand new enterprise in Could of this 12 months.

For now, the INDYCAR partnership is skipping over the lithium-sulfur EV battery angle to concentrate on 3D-printed  automotive components. “Motorsports sit on the apex of supplies innovation, the place small enhancements make the distinction in pace and security,” defined Lyten co-founder and CEO Dan Cook dinner.

Subsequent Steps For Lithium-Sulfur BESS: 100 Gigawatt-Hours & Counting

In in the present day’s announcement, Lyten saved the concentrate on its BESS (stationary Battery Vitality Storage Methods) enterprise, solely mentioning its EV battery enterprise within the final paragraph:

Lyten at the moment manufactures lithium-sulfur batteries in Silicon Valley and is promoting commercially into the quickly rising drone and protection markets. Lyten can also be making ready to launch its lithium-sulfur batteries onto the Worldwide Area Station within the coming months and is working carefully with its investor, Stellantis, on automotive purposes.

In the meantime, Lyten has been making BESS hay out of the Northvolt chapter. Since final November, Lyten has acquired Northvolt’s Cuberg battery manufacturing unit in California, in addition to its BESS product and IP portfolio. The corporate additionally expects to shut on the acquisition of the Northvolt Dwa BESS manufacturing unit in Poland later this month.

Having already snapped up a number of items of the pie, Lyten is now shifting in on the remainder.

In an embargoed press launch emailed to CleanTechnica yesterday, Lyten acknowledged that’s shifting ahead with the acquisition of Northvolt’s remaining belongings in Sweden and Germany, together with Northvolt Ett and Ett Enlargement (Skelleftea, Sweden), Northvolt Labs (Vasteras, Sweden), and Northvolt Drei (Heide, Germany).

“Moreover, Lyten is buying all remaining Northvolt mental property (IP), and a number of members of the present Northvolt govt staff plan to affix Lyten,” the corporate added.

Within the press launch, Lyten additionally described its aim of scaling as much as greater than 100 gigawatt-hours of BESS capability. “In complete, Lyten’s acquisition contains belongings constructed with over $5 billion in invested capital, leading to 16 GWh of present battery manufacturing capability, 15+ GWh of capability beneath development, the infrastructure and plans to scale to greater than 100 GWh, and the biggest and most superior battery R&D middle in Europe,” Lyten recounted.

The North American Market Is Calling

Regardless of the chaotic tariff atmosphere of in the present day — or maybe due to it — Lyten additionally plans to accumulate the 15 gigawatt-hour Northvolt Six manufacturing unit in Quebec. The corporate cites robust demand in each Europe and North America from knowledge middle stakeholders amongst different sectors.

As for the lithium-ion EV battery of the longer term, keep watch over Stellantis’s Chrysler department, the place the brand new Chrysler Halcyon Idea options an 800-volt lithium-sulfur EV battery from Lyten.

Underneath a fast-charging state of affairs the battery can crank up at 40 miles per minute, however Chrysler foresees the day when sitting nonetheless for a cost will likely be a factor of the previous. The idea EV is provided with dynamic wi-fi charging, enabling drivers to prime off whereas cruising down the freeway.

The day of in-motion charging remains to be someplace off sooner or later, however not too far. Amongst different areas of exercise, a road-embedded wi-fi EV charging demonstration undertaking is already beneath manner in Detroit.

Picture (cropped): The Chrysler Halcyon idea electrical automobile encompasses a graphene enhanced lithium-ion sulfur battery developed by the US supermaterials startup Lyten (courtesy of Chrysler).