Bedrock Materials is pausing our development of sodium-ion batteries and returning the majority of the capital we raised to our investors to redeploy into other ideas.
This isn’t the typical story behind a wind-down. We’re not out of cash. We’re not facing internal conflict. […]
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[L]ithium prices crashed by more than 85%. Battery pack prices are set to fall by half. And the policy tailwinds we were counting on have shifted, as federal support for electric vehicles faces growing uncertainty.
Our modeling pointed to a clear outcome: in a world where lithium remains abundant, today’s sodium-ion batteries can’t compete on cost—even at commercial scale. Independent researchers at Stanford reached the same conclusion, noting that for sodium-ion to succeed, it would need either a breakthrough in energy density or to carve out niche applications based on unique performance traits.
We explored both paths. The road to higher energy density came with steep technical, market, and environmental tradeoffs. Even in the best case, it didn’t yield a product meaningfully better than today’s lithium iron phosphate. As for sodium-ion’s supposed performance advantages, we found that many could be matched by modest tweaks to existing lithium-ion chemistries.
Good for them for seeing the writing on the wall and packing it in. It's a good sign for the leadership team, and I hope their next endeavors appreciate their pragmatism and willingness to do the...
Good for them for seeing the writing on the wall and packing it in. It's a good sign for the leadership team, and I hope their next endeavors appreciate their pragmatism and willingness to do the right thing.
From the article:
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Good for them for seeing the writing on the wall and packing it in. It's a good sign for the leadership team, and I hope their next endeavors appreciate their pragmatism and willingness to do the right thing.