TJ Roberts
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist or brain surgeon to comprehend that battery fires are a serious hazard with EV’s and even with smaller devices like portable laptops; the hazard results from thermal runaway. Just ask Samsung about their ~$5 billion-dollar-fine for the fire hazard their Galaxy 7 notebook batteries cost them. Enovix has a unique solution to address thermal runaway, and it’s called BrakeFlow™, and it’s superior to any solution currently on the market.
For most of the battery makers out there, their battery architecture has not changed much over the past thirty years; their jelly-roll batteries mostly consists of one main resistor used for thermal runaway prevention, along with an electrolyte solution and is not 100% effective. Estimates of ~70% effectiveness are common. With Enovix’s revolutionary battery architecture, their thermal runaway solution is near 100%. They can’t claim 100% because there’s always that one chance that the whole busbar gets destroyed with all the resistors, but that’s like winning Megabucks in reverse!
People driving around in EV’s today have potential ticking time-bombs right underneath them. An Enovix battery inside their EV with BrakeFlow™ thermal runaway prevention would greatly reduce that dangerous potential. Using just common sense, which battery would you rather have underneath you while riding around with your family? Regardless of the incentives, I’ll wait for an “Enovix inside” label before I purchase an EV.
Enovix EV batteries are a ways off, so in the meantime, I’ll try to get a few more years out of my 4-cylinder Chevy Malibu before making the dive. In my opinion, some of the main reasons the masses have not bought into EV’s is because of the fire hazard, limited range and slow charging speed. The Enovix battery will address all of those concerns — safety with BrakeFlow™, range with its superior power density, and fast-charge ability with the superior thermal advantage of its architecture. With Enovix’s unique battery architecture, recharging an EV in 10 minutes may just become a reality, instead of waiting for a day which is the average for most on a fully-depleted battery.
It is important to note that EV’s may be in the spotlight, but in reality the money is in consumer electronics. Selling 100 SmartWatch batteries at $1 each versus one EV battery cell at ~$10 reveals the real bottom line. Thermal runaway may be the crux for EV’s, but it is just as important an issue for consumer electronics. Samsung’s $5.5 billion fine from the FEC for its Galaxy notebook batteries having the potential to explode is a prime example there. It is important to also understand that as the need for more powerful batteries continues to grow due to the growing technological capabilities of semiconductors, Enovix is going to be the clear winner.
The latest iPhone 15 is a thermal heat dissipation quagmire; reports of the iPhone hitting 118°F when charging are showing that the battery must be improved or technological advancement will be stopped in its tracks. Enovix is the only answer here because it is their architectural innovation which will save the day — much like Sony’s lithium-ion battery did in 1991, otherwise cell phones, portables et al would have never proliferated.
At the Canaccord Genuity webcast in Boston in 2023, CEO Raj Talluri mentioned a contract Enovix had been awarded from the US Army, and how it was truly an endorsement of Enovix’s BrakeFlow™. Furthermore, because it was the US Army which has much higher standards and stringent regulations than the retail sector, it meant Enovix’s product quality passed incredibly high standards. The fact that the Army chose to have their soldiers wearing Enovix batteries in a vest strapped across their chests over all other competitors was a serious win for the company. The Army stated they specifically wanted Enovix’s revolutionary battery technology with BrakeFlow™ because there was nothing like it that’s ever existed on the market. Consider that the Enovix battery architecture alone is a disruptive technology, but with BrakeFlow™ technology added, it makes it twice more disruptive and safer.
In a previous article on Enovix, a picture was shown of the Enovix battery architecture compared to the competition’s conventional wound jellyroll battery technology:
Expanding on that image of the Enovix architecture above and looking at it more closely in the image below, we see one-hundred cells, each with their own anode and cathode, but more importantly, we see a resistor for each anode-cathode: this is the decentralized resistive power architecture called BrakeFlow™.
Think of BrakeFlow™ like an army of 100 resistors, whereas the venerable battery technology only has one. Would you want one big soldier or 100 little ones to protect you? By having this type of decentralized resistive power, chances of thermal runaway are practically eliminated since having all of the resistors in the battery damaged simultaneously is almost impossible. Like Enphase Energy’s decentralized power topology with its microinverters brought serious reliability to the solar industry that had never before existed, Enovix’s BrakeFlow™ technology will do the same for batteries.
Currently, many industries are hitting a brick wall when it comes to the advancement of their technology; the battery is the bottleneck, and increasing the battery size is the only solution. There is no question that in order to power the technologies of the future, a better battery is needed. One microcosm of this bottleneck is in China where the flip phone is still very popular but requires two batteries to power both the electronics and the display; with Enovix, that could easily be cut down to one battery, and then the makers of the technology could produce an even better product as a result.
In order to create a better battery, a major increase in density is required, especially if the form factor is to remain the same. However, significant increases in battery energy density can only be accompanied by increased fire hazard risk known as thermal runaway. This is why BrakeFlow™ is such a revolutionary technological advancement; it will not only help make higher-energy density batteries commonplace, but it will make them safer and bring about the next step-change in the industry. Most importantly to remember though is that BrakeFlow™ is only possible with Enovix’s unique battery architecture. Ironically, for over a decade, Enovix has been touting their battery is “tomorrow’s technology today”, and that day is fast approaching.
However, and I add this at the end, and it will deflate your excitement, preventing thermal runaway with hardware-level BrakeFlow™ and having fast-charge capabilities simultaneously are not currently possible; you either have safety or your have fast-charge; which do you want? Sure, BYD may have come up with a battery that charges in 5-minutes for their EV’s must recently, but what about the thermal runaway? I still believe in Enovix. Like Enphase’s (ENPH) revolutionary, grid-forming IQ8 microinverters that made microgrid-capable solar PV a reality, I still believe Enovix has the revolutionary battery hardware architecture that the world awaits to be scaled en masse; in my opinion, Enovix will make the silicon-lithium battery a reality and will cast the carbon (graphite) battery into the history books. The current versions of Enovix’s battery models are designed for fast-charge, so BrakeFlow™ is not part of the design.
Patience is a virtue, and Enovix investors must have it now considering where the share price stands in the $5 range. Don’t bet that which you are not willing to lose. If you can average down, then maybe now is a good time to do so. TJ Rodgers, the Executive Director is still holding 21.4 millions shares of ENVX.
- The opinions stated in this article are mine and not that of Enovix’s.
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