Specialist
Executive at Daimler AG (Mercedes-Benz Group)
Agenda
- Is Morrow Batteries’ current fundraising enough for capacity expansion plans?
- Partnerships, rationale and competitive advantages
- LMNO (lithium manganese nickel oxide) technology, feasibility and timeline
- Competitive landscape – Morrow, Northvolt and others
Questions
1.
At a high-level, what do you like about Morrow Batteries?
2.
What do you think are Morrow’s largest challenges given its positioning, recently raised financing, plans to open new factories and interesting technology roadmap?
3.
Morrow raised USD 100m to build out a pilot factory. Why do you think ABB and Siemens backed the fundraising round?
4.
You mentioned the challenges of getting to 1TWh and you noted the build-out in Europe. To what extent are today’s semiconductor challenges and the Russia-Ukraine conflict impacting the need and demand for battery supply chain in Europe?
5.
Morrow had a slide deck pre-CTO, to be announced, which had some interesting aims of the technology and some partnerships. The CEO, EVP of finance and EVP of operations generally have consulting or MBA backgrounds, less of a technical foundation. How does this shape or impact what has come first, whether technology or the value proposition, and if that’s the right way around?
6.
We’ve got the cell pilots due to have 600MWh capacity and open in Q3 2022 and you mentioned needing a pilot scale to onboard customers. Is this large enough to onboard customers for further build-outs, or will customers be unconvinced until they see the 1GW capacity build-outs targeted for 2023 construction?
7.
We’ve got the 1GWh plans, gigafactory, capacity due for construction in 2023, with all three modules initiated by 2025 and in operation towards the end of 2026. Do you think the current capital and amount raised is enough to complete this full construction?
8.
When would onboarding customers or offtake agreements become reasonable given construction of the gigafactory in 2023, and all three modules initiated by 2025?
9.
You outlined the criteria of what the customer might want, but how do you map that to the OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] in Europe? Avoiding Daimler and respective brands, in which other parts of the OEM landscape does Morrow’s value proposition fit?
10.
What contract size would be reasonable for players such as Volvo, Jaguar Land Rover and Seat in terms of gigawatt hours, given the size of the business?
11.
To what extent do you expect OEMs to dual source vs single source in the long run?
12.
The second leg of the strategy is building out the 48GWh capacity by 2028. What do you make of this timeline and how much capacity and capital needs to be raised?
13.
When would you expect Morrow to break even on an EBIT level? Would this be at the 2.5GW, 10GW or 48GW stage?
14.
Morrow aims to be the greenest battery cell in the world. Do you think this is reasonable? Might it drive a premium?
15.
What is your take on Morrow’s partnerships with Glencore, Elkem, Agder, AG, Haldor Topsoe, Bayber and so on? Which are the most important? How much value do you see in these partnerships?
16.
How do you frame the importance of module capabilities vs cell capabilities? What’s your general sense of where Morrow is on these elements?
17.
In the first year of production, Morrow will manufacture the first generation of battery cells based on known, state-of-the art technology. Do you think this will be LMNO [lithium manganese nickel oxide] or standard NMC [nickel manganese cobalt] 811 or 611?
18.
How unique is the LMNO technology? Who has the IP given the partnership with Haldor Topsoe? Is it generally in the cathode powder, the cell assembly or a combination thereof?
19.
To what extent is there a gap for LMNO in between LFP [lithium iron phosphate] and NMC? Johnson Matthey refers to its eLNO [enhanced lithium nickel oxide] development as commoditised and had hoped it would be a higher-level cathode powder, which would have been unique. Do you see any tangible differentiation or is it a case of new technology ending up being very similar to other technologies, meaning everyone stays with the original?
20.
What are the other possible ways or technologies to sit in the middle? How do these compare in terms of the commercial viability roadmap?
21.
How strong is Morrow’s positioning in graphene batteries? What do you think about the lithium-sulphur cathodes?
22.
It’s been suggested that Morrow and other European battery OEMs are in a good position due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the semiconductor shortage and global supply chain challenges. How does CATL’s [Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd’s] battery plant build-out in Germany impact this theory?