Novonix acquires Tennessee facility to expand EV battery material capacity

Novonix, an electric vehicle battery materials and technology company with operations in Australia, the United States, and Canada, has agreed to purchase and retrofit an existing facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee, kicking the company’s production expansion into high gear.

Headquartered in Brisbane, and listed on Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), Novonix develops and supplies materials, equipment, and service for the global lithium-ion battery industry.

Under the Novonix Limited parent group are three subsidiary companies – including Novonix Battery Technology Solutions based in Canada, Novonix Cathode Materials, and Pure Graphite Anode Materials, based in Chattanooga.

Pure Graphite, which already has sales agreements with Samsung and Sanyo, set up in Tennessee in 2019, and is the only qualified producer in North America of high-grade anode materials suitable for lithium-ion batteries for both electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage systems (ESS).

Novonix says it will purchase an existing facility once owned by General Electric in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which will become the company’s second facility in the area and which will accommodate a planned 8,000+ tonne-per-year production operation.

“We are excited to be announcing this next phase of expansion of our anode materials business in Tennessee,” said Chris Burns, CEO of Novonix.

“Chattanooga has been a great location for our operations over the past four years, and we look forward to growing the company in the expanding south-east hub of electric vehicle battery manufacturing.

The purchase of the old GE site will allow Novonix to expand its total production capacity of anode materials in Chattanooga to 10,000 tonnes per year and is expected to be retrofitted and operational by 2023.

It’s already been a good year for Novonix, having signed a five-year deal in February battery material research group Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada.

The partnership between Dalhousie and Novonix Battery Technology Solutions sees Novonix extend an existing partnership with Professor Mark Obrovac’s Research Group, in which Novonix will contribute $CA1.1 million alongside a further $CA2.2 million from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada’s Alliance Grants Program.

In turn, Novonix will have first rights to intellectual property (IP) developed out of this partnership.