Changzhou

So every time you want to find, say, a specialized labor that can operate industrial drone, then you have to get that person all the way from Germany, for example, or from another province in China.

But in the case of Shenzhen and several other, uh, industrial cities in China, including Changzhou or, uh, even Dongguan, they have enough people locally, so that made the R&D streamline quite frictionless.

And as a result, the cost will be lower and investors will have a higher confidence in the long-term return of investment.

Well, that, that's kind of unique, let's say, Shenzhen or, you know, China in a sense, right? There's...

The batteries don't catch fire 'cause they don't have lithium in them, and they last for a very long time.

And we were supposed to produce them in Kentucky based on their American taxpayer funding for the research, and the company pulled a fast one on us and went to China, and they opened up, uh, in, in Changzhou, which is the kinda center of the whole Chinese mercantilist predatory dumping practices to capture the battery industry worldwide.

So that's on our radar screen.

There's an old thing, 1980, um, Bayh, uh, Senator Birch Bayh, uh, Act and d- with Rob- Bob Dole, uh, that will allow us maybe to go and grab the patents on those batteries and get somebody to pro- produce them here.

And the better part of my two years, we were just basically like right alongside the guys at the factory until we formally set up a formal headquarters building, everything else.

But yes, I was based in Changzhou, China, which arguably was a fourth tier, maybe some would say fifth tier city in China at the time.

But it was...

So how

So every time you want to find, say, a specialized laborer that can operate industrial drone, then you have to get that person all the way from Germany, for example, or from another province in China.

But in the case of Shenzhen and several other industrial cities in China, including Changzhou or even Dongguan, they have enough people locally.

So that made the R&D streamline quite frictionless.

And as a result, the cost will be lower and investors will have a higher confidence in the long-term return of investment.

In 2023, it announced a $264 million first factory in Kentucky.

It dropped that plan and in 2026 opened its first plant in Changzhou, China instead.

The chief executive pointed at China's cluster of suppliers, the engineering talent and the cost.

The line is about 95% robots.

The company's new production facility in China marks a significant step toward commercial deployment, but its ability to compete with established lithium-ion technology remains to be demonstrated.

The California-based company has launched an automated production line for its aqueous metal cell AMC technology in Changzhou, China.

Constructed in approximately 25 weeks, the facility has an initial annual manufacturing capacity of 250 MWh.

Intervenio plans to expand production to one gigawatt hour, GWR, in 2027, followed by multiple gigawatt hours of annual capacity in 2028.

Those specifications could have financial implications for facilities that charge and discharge batteries frequently, although commercial performance and lifetime economics will require validation under actual operating conditions.

High-volume battery manufacturing moves toward commercial deployment.

Enervenu's Changzhou factory introduces a manufacturing process developed specifically for its nickel hydrogen battery chemistry.

Unlike lithium-ion batteries, which benefit from an established global manufacturing infrastructure, Enervenu's cells require specialized production equipment.

So I travel back from the...

I'm staying back to China and I work in Changzhou in order to push this business from Changzhou.

When I arrived in Changzhou, Changzhou already had three people with me for this business at that stage.

So currently we have almost 300 employees only working for sharing mobility side.

So we have all our product, R&D project and also supply chain and quality control.

The factory is absorbing huge costs without the revenue to cover it yet.

And on top of that, they are dealing with continuing operating costs to expand their existing plant in Changzhou, China.

Right.

The in China for China strategy.