Kodak Announces Investment in Company Developing EV “Super Cell” Battery
13 July 2022 - 11:00PM
Business Wire
Minority stake in Wildcat Discovery Technologies reflects
Kodak’s commitment to leveraging existing strengths to drive
growth
Eastman Kodak announced today it has taken a minority stake in
Wildcat Discovery Technologies (Wildcat), a technology company that
uses proprietary high-throughput methods to rapidly develop new
battery materials. Wildcat is developing a breakthrough EV “super
cell” designed to provide a greater than 90 percent improvement in
energy density over today’s best batteries, which could further
accelerate the widespread adoption of EVs.
Kodak’s investment will be used to support rapid development of
the new technology, with the goal of having the “super cell” ready
for commercialization in two years. Kodak has also entered into an
agreement to provide coating and engineering services in
collaboration with Wildcat to develop and scale film coating
technologies which are critical for the safety and reliability of
the next generation of EV battery technology. Wildcat has granted
Kodak certain rights to negotiate a production or licensing
arrangement with Wildcat when and if Wildcat’s technology reaches
commercial readiness.
Kodak’s investment represents the continued expansion of our
Advanced Materials & Chemicals group as we capitalize on our
expertise in coating technology, developed over decades of film
manufacturing, to pursue opportunities in the growing battery
market. Over the past several years, Kodak has been using its pilot
coating facility to coat materials on substrates for EV/energy
storage batteries and fuel cells for a variety of customers. Kodak
is expanding the capacity and capability of this pilot facility
with a new small-scale coating machine that will be fully
operational in early 2023. In addition, the Company has announced
it has repurposed a full‐scale production coating machine to
manufacture coated substrates for cathode and anode assembly in the
EV/energy storage battery market. Kodak has begun providing coated
material to a battery manufacturer and is in the process of ramping
production levels, the maximum capacity of which is up to 80
million square meters per year.
“This investment in Wildcat reflects Kodak’s commitment to
building new businesses by leveraging our existing skills and
infrastructure. Coating substrates is a critical aspect of
manufacturing batteries and no one is better at coating than
Kodak,” said Jim Continenza, Kodak’s Executive Chairman and CEO.
“We are excited about the opportunity to collaborate with an
innovator like Wildcat to provide more powerful, safer solutions
for applications such as energy storage and EV batteries and
participate in this rapidly growing market.”
About Kodak
Kodak (NYSE: KODK) is a leading global manufacturer focused on
commercial print and advanced materials & chemicals. With
32,000 patents earned over 130 years of R&D, we believe in the
power of technology and science to enhance what the world sees and
creates. Our innovative, award-winning products, combined with our
customer-first approach, make us the partner of choice for
commercial printers worldwide. Kodak is committed to environmental
stewardship, including industry leadership in developing
sustainable solutions for print. For additional information on
Kodak, visit us at kodak.com, or follow us on Twitter @Kodak and
LinkedIn.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220713005424/en/
Media: Kurt Jaeckel, Kodak, +1 585-490-8646,
kurt.jaeckel@kodak.com
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