Can Cathode Materials Outside China Really Compete on Cost?

Epsilon Advanced Materials founder Vikram Handa discusses the economics of building a competitive battery materials supply chain outside China.

We cover why LFP cathode manufacturing may be more of a CapEx game than an Opex game, the case for integrating US lithium refining with LFP production, and why hard carbon could become a key bottleneck for sodium-ion batteries.

Follow Epsilon:LinkedIn (Vikram Handa) - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vikram-handa/LinkedIn (Company) - https://www.linkedin.com/company/epsilonadvancedmaterials/X/Twitter (Company) - https://x.com/EpsilonGraphite

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Chapters

(00:00) Epsilon’s Battery Materials Expansion(02:28) Why Epsilon Chose LFP(04:19) Scaling LFP Production In India(08:39) Matching Chinese LFP Performance(10:18) Gen Four LFP Without China(14:42) Customer Qualification And Demand(18:44) De-Risking The LFP Supply Chain(21:57) India’s Cost Advantage Explained(24:45) Integrating Lithium And Cathode Production(29:03) Where LFP Technology Hits Its Ceiling(32:02) Sodium-Ion Demand Drives Hard Carbon(35:50) Hard Carbon Scalability Is Critical(38:13) Can Battery Midstream Scale Outside China?

Links

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