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Comment by malchow | Hacker News Reader

Novel chemistries in nano scale in the lab are fun to puzzle about, but pure silicon anode Li-ion batteries really are coming in the next six months, notably from Enovix, and will actually change things. A 2x density upgrade that's real is a whole lot more interesting than a 6x density upgrade that isn't ready for commercialization.

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Have these been independently tested with production form factors? Battery startups seem to have a lot of middle-level fraud in them where they have nice demonstration piddly level cells with great numbers that the internal teams know won't scale to real uses.

I did see they are actually funding a factory... but I only saw a couple stories on "wearables" which implies very small batteries. Ugh, and a SPAC.

I really want these various startups to succeed much like I actually wanted Nikola Motors to succeed and Lordstown to succeed, but the Tesla stock explosion is going to bring these hype-shells out of the woodwork.

Yes, they've been independently tested with production form factors at sampling quantities by major global OEMs: https://ir.enovix.com/static-files/9231246c-a419-46bb-be35-a.... So this is the real one.

You're right – lots of bad actors in the battery space. Investors don't really understand how wide the chasm is between prototypes and low-DPPM autoline production ready for grown-up purchases.

Well I'm rooting for them, battery density has kind of stalled at a chemistry level it seems, I haven't seen as many exciting announcements like there were in 2020.

Any news site recommendations for us curious noobs? I've been watching The Limiting Factor. I don't think I'd heard about Enovix yet.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIFn7ONIJHyC-lMnb7Fm_jw/vid...

Update: Scanning your posts, you're in the biz. Of course you have a bead on things. Open to recommendations, nonetheless.

The best journalist in the space is Steve Levine — I’d start there.

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