EnPower looking at growth after ribbon cutting
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The chief executive officer of Indianapolis-based EnPower Inc. says the lithium-ion battery manufacturer is already looking to its future in Indianapolis. The company, which relocated to Indy from Phoenix earlier this year, cut the ribbon Wednesday on its manufacturing facility on the city’s northeast side. Annette Finsterbusch says EnPower has already grown from 12 employees to more than 60 and ultimately expects to grow its workforce to about 350.
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business Reporter Alex Brown, Finsterbusch said having a facility essentially ready to move into helped with the decision to move to Indy.
“It quickened our time to market by about two, maybe two and a half years,” said Finsterbusch. “But what we’ve really learned since we got here…is this area – Illinois, Indiana, Michigan – you have many, many groups who are focused on electrification. This is sort of becoming an entire area where the value chain will sit. There are heavy manufacturing industries here who want electrification, and they want to work directly with their suppliers.”
The facility was formerly occupied by EnerDel, and EnPower acquired the company’s pouch cell manufacturing line. EnPower spent several months upgrading and modernizing the facility.
“We sent our first batteries out about two months ago, samples going to various customers around the world,” Finsterbusch said. “So, we expect in Q4 to be starting up the big equipment, and by Q1, we’ll be starting to ramp.”
Finsterbusch says the facility will focus on the production of two types of lithium-ion batteries. The first is a 10-amp hour pouch cell that is used for applications such as lawn and garden, power tools and drones.
The other is a larger, 65-amp hour battery that can be used for battery electric vehicle-adjacent markets such as construction and mining.
When fully operational, the facility will have the ability to produce 800 megawatt hours of batteries annually with the potential to grow to approximately 1.5 gigawatt hours.
“We have applied to the [U.S. Department of Energy] for funding, and we should find out this month whether we’re going to be able to scale this facility to six gigawatt hours. That will allow us to basically take this facility to a point where then we would break ground on a 30-gigawatt factory outside of here.”
Finsterbusch says if the company does build an additional facility, it will likely be in the Indianapolis area and could create thousands of new jobs.
EnPower plans to double the current number of employees by the end of the first quarter of 2023. Finsterbusch says finding the necessary workforce has been challenging.
“Our industry is growing phenomenally fast, and so therefore finding these battery scientists is tough. We’re now partnering with the Battery Innovation Center. We are spending a lot of time at Rose-Hulman recruiting and other institutions across the country. I think we’re creating a pipeline, but our focus is to make sure we’re hiring dominantly in this region.”
Finsterbusch adds the company has felt very welcomed by the state, and they plan to become more integrated in the local community.