Battery maker EnerDel lays off most of its employees, workers say
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EnerDel Inc., an Anderson-based lithium-ion battery manufacturer that has had financial ups and downs for two decades, laid off nearly all of its workers on Monday, according to former employees of the company and posts on social media.
A member of EnerDel’s leadership team confirmed layoffs in a LinkedIn post on Monday.
“Unfortunately, all my team members are laid off today,” wrote Bob Hong, who headed the company’s engineering department. “They are very great battery engineers in different functions and they have to look for a new job. If you are hiring or you know someone is hiring, please reach out to me.”
Hong did not respond to an IBJ message seeking more information.
At least a half-dozen other employees posted on LinkedIn that they were now looking for work. And a person listed on LinkedIn as a human resources manager commented that “EnerDel closed.”
It’s unclear how many employees at the Anderson facility are impacted by the changes.
The company reported having 60 employees in the United States early last year when it announced it had been acquired by a board member. That move came a couple of months after EnerDel moved from Indianapolis to Anderson. Later in 2022, EnerDel opened an Advanced Engineering Tech Center in Irvine, California, and said it would hire about 25 people for that facility.
EnerDel officials did not respond Tuesday to emails and calls seeking information. When reached by phone Tuesday afternoon, EnerDel CEO Steve Heir declined to comment.
While the reasons for the sudden layoffs haven’t been made public, the company appears to have faced financial setbacks in recent months.
Heir sent an email to all employees in May notifying them that two of three potential investors in the company had backed out, according to a copy of the memo sent to IBJ.
“EnerDel has secured interim financing to support the business while we close this investment round, but the level of funding requires us all to tighten our belts and be creative in how we achieve our objectives,” the email read.
The downfall comes amid increasing competition for clean energy subsidies made available under the Inflation Reduction Act and as states like Indiana work to attract electric vehicle manufacturers and battery makers looking to onshore their operations.
Last week, General Motors and South Korea-based Samsung SDI announced the selection of a 656-acre site in northwest Indiana for its EV battery cell plant, a $2 billion facility that is expected to create 1,700 manufacturing jobs. Samsung SDI is also part of a joint venture with auto maker Stellantis to build a $2.5 billion EV battery factory in Kokomo that is expected to create 1,400 jobs.
The Biden administration has made electric cars a staple of its energy policy and has pushed to have plug-in vehicles make up half of new vehicle sales by 2030, but electric car sales still claim only about 5.4% of the U.S. market.
Founded in 2004, EnerDel was the first company in the U.S. to provide commercial-scale production of large-format, prismatic, lithium-ion battery packs, according to its website.
The company received $118 million in federal subsidies through the 2009 stimulus package to grow its operations, at one point projecting to hire 2,400 central Indiana workers. But EnerDel struggled to turn a profit amid sluggish demand for the electric cars its batteries were developed to power.
A major blow came in 2011 when EnerDel’s primary customer, Norwegian-based electric car maker Think Global AS, filed for bankruptcy protection. Then in January 2012, EnerDel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after defaulting on its bond debt.
Russian timber tycoon Boris Zingarevic acquired EnerDel out of bankruptcy, and the company shifted its focus to micro-grid systems for facilities such as military bases and supplying power to electric and hybrid city buses.
Last year, after EnerDel moved its headquarters from Indianapolis to Anderson, it sold its Indianapolis facility to lithium-ion battery manufacturer EnPower Inc., which has been expanding.
In July 2022, EnerDel and its holding company, Ener1 Inc., were acquired by Paul Herbert, a longtime board director at EnerDel, through his Memphis, Tennessee-based company PHL Energy LLC. IBJ was unable to reach Herbert on Tuesday.
At the time of the acquisition, Herbert said, “Becoming American-owned will make EnerDel an easier choice for our customers, suppliers and employees. We are committed to improving the competitive position of our customers and are poised to launch a new range of products that will do just that.”