Lithium-Ion battery maker relocating to Indianapolis
INDIANAPOLIS (Inside INdiana Business) — A manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries originally based in Phoenix is relocating to Indianapolis. EnPower Inc. is moving into a facility previously operated by EnerDel Inc. on the city’s northeast side and plans to add more than 100 jobs by the end of the year. Chief Executive Officer Annette Finsterbusch says the move is part of an effort to bring more battery production to the United States.
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Finsterbusch said EnPower is filling a growing need.
“As we turned the corner in 2021, we really realized that our industry had taken on this incredible inflection point and the battery electric vehicle market was taking all of the batteries out of the system,” said Finsterbusch. “So, many of the U.S. manufacturers of power tools and, for example, vertical takeoff and lift vehicles, they were basically left with nothing…and so, we realized that there was an opportunity for U.S. manufacturing and we have a technology which is ready to go to market.”
EnPower has acquired EnerDel’s pouch cell manufacturing line located and plans to modernize the nearly 100,000-square-foot facility with equipment upgrades, automation and additional assembly lines. The company says it will have the ability to produce up to 800-megawatt hours of advanced lithium-ion batteries per year.
The Indy location will serve as a “customer qualification facility” where the company can scale production, complete comprehensive cell testing and secure sales agreements.
“We’re basically trying to sample to customers and ultimately create the long-term purchase agreements that will allow us to create a size – whether that’s 10 gigawatt hours or 30 gigawatt hours – for a plant that we plan to break ground on in Q4 of 2023, and that plant would be open in 2025, a much larger plant,” said Finsterbusch.
Finsterbusch says the company is in the process of moving equipment from Phoenix to Indy and plans to begin manufacturing batteries in May.
About 20 employees are moving to Indy and Finsterbusch says the goal is to get to 150 employees by the end of this year. The company is currently hiring for a variety of positions, including production associates, engineers, and maintenance technicians.