Mangrove Lithium CEO Saad Dara described the facility as a 'clown building,' emphasizing its unexpected location and extensive operations. He noted, 'It just keeps going,' while showcasing the research and development lab.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders is calling for UK-built vehicles, components and batteries to be granted equivalent status to EU-made products under the proposed 'Made in Europe' framework, arguing that the current draft risks undermining a deeply integrated cross-border industry.
"We were considering multiple forms of capital when we started. It just felt like the opportunity is so large that venture capital gives us the opportunity to take those risks upfront and have the possibility to generate an outsized return."
The team, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing Institute of Technology, recently published their findings in Nature Communications. According to their research, the process not only avoids conventional leaching chemicals and extreme heat to extract lithium from old batteries, but it also uses carbon dioxide in what the authors call a sequestration step, and turns other battery transition metals into new catalysts - with CO₂-rich water doing most of the chemical work.
The first sites are expected to open later this Summer, and will be built at select locations along I-5 and I-10, major routes for commercial vehicles and significant logistics companies. The chargers will be available in California, Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas. Each station will have between four and eight chargers, delivering up to 1.2 megawatts of power at each stall.