Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp. announced a partnership Thursday with Factorial Energy, a Massachusetts-based developer of solid-state battery technology.
The joint development agreement, which includes an undisclosed investment by the South Korean automaker, Hyundai and Kia will integrate Factorial’s technology into the cell, module and system levels of future vehicles.
Factorial is a started located in Woburn, Massachusetts, near Boston.
This marks Factorial’s first strategic investment from a major automaker. Its technology is based on a system that uses a solid electrolyte material that allows safe and reliable cell performance with high-voltage and high-capacity electrodes.
Factorial’s system is safer than that found in lithium-ion batteries and extends the fully-charged vehicle’s range by between 20% and 50%.
“Our partnership with Hyundai is yet another validation of our solid-state battery technology and we look forward to demonstrating its market readiness in Hyundai vehicles,” Factorial Energy CEO Siyu Huang, said in a statement.
Huang, who co-founded the company with Alex Yu, whom she met while pursuing her Ph.D. in chemistry at Cornell University.
In April 2021, the company introduced the first 40 Amp-hour solid-state battery for electric vehicles.
At that time Huang said that for electric vehicles to grow beyond the current 4% of global car sales, consumers need to see dramatic price and performance improvements in the underlying batteries. Factorial believes its technology can deliver those benefits safely and at scale.
Members of Factorial’s board of directors include Joe Taylor, former chairman and CEO of Panasonic Corp. of North America, while Dieter Zetsche, former chairman of Daimler AG and Mark Fields, a former Ford CEO and interim CEO of car rental giant Hertz, are senior advisors to the company.
