Imara launches li-ion battery production

Imara launched production today at its first manufacturing facility, capable of producing 8 million cells per year.

The Menlo Park, Calif.-based startup is trying to secure contracts with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to incorporate the high-power, high-energy rechargeable lithium ion batteries into power tools and outdoor equipment, such as leaf blowers.

The news comes the week that Imara's biggest rival in the lithium-ion startup space, A123Systems, plans to begin trading on the Nasdaq, with the initial public offering set to secure up to $954 million for the Watertown, Mass.-based company (see A123 looking to get lucky filing IPO price range?). 

"Hopefully they're wildly successful. We figure if the financial community likes theirs, they’ll really like ours," Imara CEO Jeff Depew told the Cleantech Group.

Imara is in talks with investors to raise a new round of funding, but Depew said the size is still being determined. He hopes to close the round by the end of October. The company previously raised a little more than $19 million in two rounds from Battery Ventures, Nth Power and a couple unnamed investors (see Funds flow to light and solar).

Depew said Imara expects to begin shipping production-level cells and battery packs to customers this week, with the goal of securing deals within four months. Imara was shipping R&D cells to customers for sampling and testing, but Depew said the production-line cells are outperforming the R&D cells, which could speed adoption and brand recognition. The company doesn't have plans to sell the batteries commercially.

"Our goal is to get to a 'Powered by Imara' or 'Imara Inside' kind of thing," he said. "At least for the foreseeable future, it's not going to be a consumer-packaged good."

Imara, previously known as Lion Cells, came out of stealth in late 2008 (see Battery maker Imara emerges from stealth). Imara uses lithium ion battery technology developed at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) as part of the Partnership for the Next Generation Vehicle initiative. Federal funding for the program dried up, and Depew bought the exclusive license, which Imara has used as the basis for its technology.

Depew said that Imara is unique among battery startups, most of which focus on nanotechnology to improve capacity and cycles. Instead, Imara is work with the morphology of materials, he said.

"We're creating asymmetrical particles as opposed to going nano, which is where most of the industry is focusing efforts. Asymmetrical particles allow us to get better ionic connectivity and lower impedance in the cell and better packing density, which enable us to deliver more power and more energy."

The first battery line uses a nickel manganese cobalt chemistry, which is also used by Sanyo Electric (see Volkswagen, Sanyo team up on battery technology). Imara's lab is looking to improve it, in addition to developing a nickel cobalt aluminum cell, which is used by Sony and Samsung (see Sony launches new mercury-free button battery). A123 uses iron-phosphate technology.

The different chemistries offer slightly different characteristics in order to serve different applications, Depew said.

"Batteries are about trade offs at some level. Some [customers] have different priorities when it comes to power, energy and cycle-life," he said.

Still, Depew claimed that his products have 25 percent more power than A123's, and 60 percent more energy than A123's. He said Imara also has the advantage of using existing manufacturing processes and capacity, which lowers the capital necessary to scale.

Imara acquired a 15,000-square foot building near its Silicon Valley headquarters for the current production line, which uses standard battery-manufacturing equipment. Imara is producing the electrodes for the batteries, which are being assembled at a partner facility in China.

In addition to the 18650 battery line, Imara is developing a product that offers three times the capacity in order to power electric motorcycles. Design is partly done on the battery, with Imara planning to ship samples to customers in the middle of 2010.

In the long term, Imara plans to pursue a number of applications, including energy storage. The company has been approached by the oil exploration sector, which is interested in submersible batteries. Imara is also in talks with car manufacturers.

Depew said the company, which has 37 employees, was not eligible for U.S. government stimulus funding for advanced batteries because it did not have existing contracts with auto manufacturers. However, Imara hopes to secure funds from the U.S. Department of Energy.

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