US lithium-sulfur batteries developer Lyten announced that it will acquire of Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt’s former lithium-metal battery center in San Leandro, California, that was operated by its former subsidiary Cuberg.
Lyten intends to convert the facility to lithium-sulfur and expand capacity to enable up to 200 MWh of lithium-sulfur battery production in the Bay Area at full capacity.
As part of the agreement, Lyten will take over Cuberg’s lease of a 119,000 square foot facility in San Leandro, just 30 minutes from Lyten’s San Jose headquarters, that includes manufacturing, office, and warehouse space. Lyten will acquire Cuberg’s battery cell development and manufacturing equipment and make additional equipment investments to expand the facility’s capacity.
Lyten intends to invest up to $20M in 2025 as part of an ongoing plan to expand the San Leandro and San Jose facilities to deliver up to 200 MWh per year, at full capacity, of US manufactured Lithium-Sulfur batteries. San Leandro commercial production is intended to begin in the second half of 2025.
“The acquisition of additional manufacturing capacity for Lithium-Sulfur is in direct response to fulfilling customer demand more quickly,” said Dan Cook, Lyten’s CEO and co-founder. “Our customer pipeline has grown nine-fold since the start of 2024 and now numbers in the hundreds of potential customers. We are now working to allocate capacity from both San Leandro and our previously announced Reno gigafactory.”
Celina Mikolajczak, Lyten’s Chief Battery Technology Officer, stated, “We are thrilled for the opportunity to continue the buildout and expansion of the San Leandro facility to accelerate delivery of Lithium-Sulfur batteries to customers. The facility further demonstrates our strategy for building US leadership in the manufacturing of next generation batteries and will enable Lyten to scale our domestic materials supply chain more quickly.”
Lyten intends to deliver Lithium-Sulfur cells to defense, drone, micromobility and other energy storage customers from the San Leandro facility. Batteries produced at San Leandro will be sourced by a US materials supply chain, making the batteries US National Defense Appropriations Act (NDAA) and Inflation Reduction Action compliant.
Dan Cook added, “The speed of Lyten’s manufacturing expansion represents a timely move to assist the U.S. Department of Defense and the military services in complying with the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which mandates the acquisition of domestic batteries.”
Lyten, which currently produces batteries on its semi-automated pilot line in San Jose, last month announced plans to build a gigafactory in Nevada capable of manufacturing up to 10 GWh of lithium-sulfur batteries annually utilizing a US materials supply chain. The first phase is expected to come online in 2027.
“Lithium-Sulfur is a highly manufacturable battery that can be produced on standard lithium-ion equipment used throughout the world today. We intend to use this advantage to continue to opportunistically expand Lithium-Sulfur production though the acquisition of lithium-ion assets,” added Mikolajczak.
Lyten’s Lithium-Sulfur battery cells feature high energy density, which will enable an up to 40% lighter weight than lithium-ion and 60% lighter weight than lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. Lyten’s cells are fully manufactured in the U.S. and utilize abundantly available local materials, eliminating the need for the mined minerals nickel, cobalt, manganese, and graphite. Lyten’s use of low cost, local materials make Lyten lithium-sulfur a lower cost and higher performing battery than lithium-ion at scale.
Strategic investors in Lyten include Stellantis, FedEx, Honeywell, and the Walbridge Group. Earlier this year, Lyten announced it has partnered with leading defense manufacturer AEVEX Aerospace to demonstrate lithium-sulfur battery powered unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) that are fully compliant with the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act’s (NDAA). Lyten also recently announced that its battery cells were selected for testing aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2025, a project funded by the Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU).
