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An artist rendering of Form Energy’s battery system.
Rendering courtesy Form Energy

A secretive start-up called Form Energy says it’s developing and scaling the production of a new type of rechargeable battery that can store electricity for 100 hours.

Form hasn’t publicly demonstrated its technology or shared proof that it works. Nonetheless, the company has lined up more than $360 million in funding, including a new $240 million round that closed Tuesday, and partners and outside experts are optimistic about its potential.

One notable funder is Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which includes tech celebrities Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Reid Hoffman and Richard Branson as investors. In one of his blog posts, Gill Gates touted the importance of Form Energy’s work, writing that it was “creating a new class of batteries that would provide long-duration storage at a lower cost than lithium ion batteries.”

Its first utility partner, Minnesota-based Great River Energy, describes their work together as a pilot project that could be an “important contribution to grid reliability and energy affordability should they achieve commercial success,” a spokesperson says.

In order to be at net-zero by mid-century, meaning that the globe is absorbing as much greenhouse gases as are still being emitted, solar and wind capacity will need to quadruple and investments in renewable energy will need to triple by 2030, according to comments from United Nations Secretary General António Guterres.

For that to happen, there also must be a ramp up of long duration battery storage. There has to be a way to provide electricity when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. That’s the market Form Energy is attempting to serve.

No public data, lots of faith

Until recently, the company had been operating under the radar. In October 2019, CEO Mateo Jaramillo, a former Telsa vice president, noted his own reticence to speak with the media.

“As you’ve maybe seen, there isn’t a lot of press about us. And we’ve tried to tamp down anything other than what’s necessary,” he told CNBC at the time, speaking at the Tough Tech Summit in Boston, in the backyard of the company’s headquarters in Somerville, Mass. “There’s just a fraught history with battery startups over the last 15 years. Which is why that hesitancy in general. The industry is a little weary, I would say.”

Despite the company’s early tendency to skirt the spotlight, it’s had no trouble raising funds. On Tuesday, Form Energy announced it had closed a $240 million Series D financing round, led by the decarbonization XCarb innovation fund of the global steel manufacturer ArcelorMittal. Form Energy and ArcelorMittal are working together to develop iron materials for Form’s first commercial battery technology which “ArcelorMittal would non-exclusively supply for Form’s battery systems,” according to a statement. Breakthrough Energy Ventures also participated in the round.

However, Form has released no public data to verify the performance of its long-duration battery technology. (The company prefers the term “multi-day storage” to differentiate it from other companies working on shorter-long-duration batteries.)

The Form Energy battery.
Photo courtesy Form Energy

“We have been doing extensive testing internally. But you asked about public data. There is no public data, we don’t publish public data. We’re a private company, so we don’t need to,” Jaramillo told CNBC in a phone conversation in August.

“We are extremely transparent with our partners … about the testing that we have, the cells that we’re building and testing … but all of the structure of our experiments and exactly what goes in there that’s quite proprietary,” Jaramillo said.

CNBC spoke with several of these funders and partners to learn what they saw in the company’s technology.

Great River Energy is working with Form Energy to implement a one-wasmegawatt battery storage pilot project in Cambridge, Minn. Form Energy’s battery technology depends on having access to iron, and a swath of northern Minnesota is called the Iron Range for its extensive deposits.

The management and technical teams of Form Energy and Great River have been collaborating for more than three years, says Jon Brekke, vice president and chief power supply officer for the utility.

“During this time, Form has shared with us plans, actions, and results of their technology development work that directly supports our pilot project,” Brekke told CNBC. “A shared vision of low cost, long duration storage led us to this pilot project. We see these efforts as an important contribution to grid reliability and energy affordability should they achieve commercial success.” 

While Great River Energy reports to have seen evidence of Form Energy’s battery tech working, the California Energy Commission, from which Form Energy won a $2 million dollar grant, has not.

In June 2020, the California Energy Commission, the state’s primary energy policy and planning agency, granted Form Energy the money to be used for pursuing the development of energy storage technologies that do not require lithium.Grants are awarded on a competitive basis, meaning they are scored based on their technical merit,” Michael Ward, spokesperson for the California Energy Commission told CNBC.

That said, the California Energy Commission “has not seen specific performance data on the iron-air technology yet,” according to CEC researcher Mike Gravely. It expects to “receive that data when the system is built and tested” at a test site at the University of California at Irvine.

Form Energy’s air electrode, a component of its battery technology.
Photo courtesy Form Energy

A co-chair of the investment committee at Breakthrough Ventures, Carmichael Roberts, said the firm would not comment on the performance of Form Energy’s technology. However, he told CNBC the caliber of the personnel gave the Breakthrough team the confidence to invest.

“When we started Breakthrough Energy Ventures, we knew that long duration energy storage was going to be an important part of the portfolio. When we learned that Yet-Ming and Mateo were each creating a new battery company, we saw it as the perfect opportunity to bring together two of the world’s leading experts, and Form was launched,” Roberts told CNBC. Yet-Ming Chiang is a co-founder and the chief scientist at Form Energy, and a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1985.

“We knew that the core technology had great potential, but more importantly we had faith in the team that could deliver it,” Roberts said.

The rechargeable iron-air battery Form Energy is not the only technology the company has pursued.

In 2018, Form Energy received $3.8 million from the federal government’s Department of Energy as a part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (abbreviated as ARPA-E). But that was for a different battery based on “aqueous sulfur battery chemistry,” Form told CNBC.

“We chose to focus on an iron-air battery as our first commercial offering both because of its promising performance in the lab and because the iron-air chemistry positions us to tap into the global iron supply chain that already exists to support steel manufacturing,” the company said.

How iron-air battery tech works

The essential ingredients in Form’s battery are iron, air and water, all readily available and low cost. The battery works with a process the company calls “reversible rusting.”

To charge, an electric current converts rust back to iron and the battery breathes out oxygen. To discharge, the battery takes in oxygen from the air and converts the iron to rust.

Each battery is filled with a non-flammable electrolyte liquid, similar to the electrolyte used in AA batteries and is about the size of a washing machine, Form Energy says. Thousands of the washing machine-size battery modules are clumped together in power blocks and depending on what is needed, tens to hundreds of power blocks can be connected to the electricity grid.

A diagram of the Form Energy iron-air battery technology.
Form Energy

The technology is not new. “You can get something to rust, obviously. Rust happens all the time,” Jaramillo told CNBC. “To better control that process and to control it at its least cost, most performing points is an altogether separate matter.”

Experts agree that the technology has promise.

“There is obvious economic potential if iron can substitute for expensive precious metals such as cobalt, nickel and lithium,” says Stefan Reichelstein, an accounting professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business whose recent work includes studying the cost competitiveness of low-carbon energy solutions.

“But the information disclosed thus far leaves open the key question: What is the unit cost of storing (and discharging) electricity in relatively few — rather than daily — cycles each year?” he added.

The cost question

Form Energy aims to have its battery cost less than $20 per kilowatt-hour, the company tells CNBC. If the company can deliver on that cost goal, it would be a meaningful advance, experts say.

“From an economics point of view, Form’s announced cost target of $20 per kilowatt-hour is in line with what we found in our study published in Nature Energy to be the cost level required for long-duration energy storage to play a significant role in decarbonization of energy systems,” Nestor Sepulveda, who holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in developing methodologies that combine operations research and analytics to guide the energy transition and cleantech development, told CNBC.

By comparison, lithium ion batteries cost between $100 and $200 per kilowatt-hour, explained Mark Z. Jacobson, a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford.

Form Energy’s iron anode, a component of its battery technology.
Photo courtesy Form Energy

“If the cost is actually $20 per kilowatt-hour, that would be a breakthrough and allow the rapid large-scale transformation of all electricity world wide to clean, renewable (wind-water-solar) electricity,” Jacobson said.

Battery tech at the $20 per kilowatt-hour price point “would eliminate the need for natural gas or any other type of combustion fuel for backup power,” Jacobson told CNBC. “It would break any chance of nuclear power from playing a role in an energy future. It would end coal, fuel oil, and natural gas as fuels for electricity generation.”

Sepulveda, who is currently working as a consultant, is a bit more conservative about what $20 per kilowatt-hour means.

He said the threshold is meaningful “with very high penetration of renewables (not our current levels).” So in order for $20 per kilowatt-hour to be meaningful for the quest for carbon reduction, there will have to be more renewable energy production on the ground. “The question then becomes, is there a market in the near future for these technologies? I think that the answer is that there is going to be a niche market for long-duration-energy-storage in the short-medium term, but a big one in the long-term.”

Even while “$20 per kilowatt-hour is very cheap,” Sepulveda and his co-authors determined it the price of long-duration battery storage would need to be less than $10 per kilowatt-hour to “meaningfully displace” other forms of firm energy generation, which refers to energy technologies that can be counted on to meet demand when it is needed in all seasons and over weeks or longer.

The demand for multi-day-battery technology depends on the development of other technologies, too.

“While it seems plausible that iron-air batteries are less expensive than lithium-ion batteries, the more interesting comparison will be with other seasonal storage technologies, for instance, hydrogen conversion,” Reichelstein said to CNBC.

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CNBC Daily Open: Most people don’t start a political party after separation

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CNBC Daily Open: Most people don't start a political party after separation

US President Donald Trump, right, and Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., during a news conference in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, May 30, 2025.

Francis Chung | Bloomberg | Getty Images

When they find themselves without a significant other, most men finally start living: They pay attention to their personal grooming, hit the gym and discover new hobbies.

What does the world’s richest man do? He starts a political party.

Last weekend, as the United States celebrated its independence from the British in 1776, Elon Musk enshrined his sovereignty from U.S. President Donald Trump by establishing the creatively named “American Party.”

Few details have been revealed, but Musk said the party will focus on “just 2 or 3 Senate seats and 8 to 10 House districts,” and will have legislative discussions “with both parties” — referring to the U.S. Democratic and Republican Parties.

It might be easier to realize Musk’s dream of colonizing Mars than to bridge the political aisle in the U.S. government today.

To be fair, some thought appeared to be behind the move. Musk decided to form the party after holding a poll on X in which 65.4% of respondents voted in favor.

Folks, here’s direct democracy — and the powerful post-separation motivation — in action.

 — CNBC’s Erin Doherty contributed to this report.

What you need to know today

Trump confirms tariffs will kick in Aug. 1. That postpones the deadline by a month, but tariffs could “boomerang” back to April levels for countries without deals. Trump on Friday said letters with “take it or leave it” offers will go out to 12 countries Monday.

U.S. stock futures slipped Sunday. Despite the White House pushing back the return of “reciprocal” tariffs, some investors could be worried trade negotiations would result in higher-than-expected duties. Europe’s Stoxx 600 index dropped 0.48% Friday.

OPEC+ members to increase oil output. Eight members of the alliance agreed on Saturday to hike their collective crude production by 548,000 barrels per day, around 100,000 more than expected.

Elon Musk forms a new political party. On Saturday, the world’s richest man said he has formed a new U.S. political party named the “American Party,” which he claims will give Americans “back your freedom.”

[PRO] Wall Street is growing cautious on European equities. As investors seek shelter from tumult in U.S., the Stoxx 600 index has risen 6.6% year to date. Analysts, however, think the foundations of that growth could be shaky.

And finally…

Ayrton Senna driving the Marlboro McLaren during the Belgian Grand Prix in 1992.

Pascal Rondeau | Hulton Archive | Getty Images

The CEO mindset is shifting. It’s no longer all about winning

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/06/the-ceo-mindset-is-shifting-its-no-longer-all-about-winning.html

CEOs today aren’t just steering companies — they’re navigating a minefield. From geopolitical shocks and economic volatility to rapid shifts in tech and consumer behavior, the playbook for leadership is being rewritten in real time.

In an exclusive interview with CNBC earlier this week, McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown outlined a leadership approach centered on urgency, momentum and learning from failure. 

— Spriha Srivastava

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Honda now has an electric Ruckus. Will they bring it to the US?

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Honda now has an electric Ruckus. Will they bring it to the US?

The Honda Ruckus has earned cult status thanks to its minimalist styling, exposed frame, and seemingly endless customizability. The scooter, also known in international markets as the Honda Zoomer, has spent years being seen as a blank canvas for scooter tuners, urban commuters, and anyone who just wanted something simple, small, and kind of weird to zip around town. A few years ago, Honda finally answered the call for an updated version by announcing and producing the “Zoomer e:”, which was an electric version of the Honda Ruckus. So where is it?

When Honda launched the all-electric version of the Ruckus, the Zoomer e:, back in 2023, many fans hoped it was only a matter of time before we saw it quietly glide onto U.S. streets.

But two years later, there’s still no sign of a stateside release, and no indication that Honda plans to change that anytime soon.

The Zoomer e: was first introduced in China in early 2023 alongside two other retro-inspired electrics: the Cub e: and Dax e:.

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The Zoomer e: keeps the stripped-down, industrial look of the classic gas-powered Ruckus, but swaps the 49cc engine for a 400W rear hub motor and a 48V 24Ah battery (around 1.15 kWh).

It was originally given a top speed of a mere 25 km/h (15.5 mph) to keep it street legal as an electric bicycle in its first market of China, where it also came with functional but stubby pedals so riders could pretend it was actually pedalable.

The first version of the electric scooter claimed a range of up to 80–90 km (50–56 miles) from its removable lithium-ion battery, depending on conditions.

An advertisement for a Honda Zoomer e: in the Philippines via Facebook

We’ve since seen the performance bumped up to 40 km/h (25 mph) top speeds when the scooter was introduced into the Philippines market, where the local L1B classification allowed for higher speeds. It’s fairly obvious that the performance can be software-tweaked by Honda depending on the market, though likely to a limit. To achieve speeds much higher than 25 mph, a motor and controller swap may be required, though neither would be complicated.

In other words, the electric Ruckus’ debut revealed an ultra-lightweight, street-legal runabout designed for countries with expansive low-speed e-bike laws. But in the U.S., these types of quasi-e-bikes that are actually scooters are few and far between. The same performance can be had from a $1,000 electric bicycle, and in fact, Class 3 e-bikes in the US can go nearly twice as fast as the original electric Ruckus.

So Honda obviously hasn’t been in a rush to bring its low-spec version of the bike to the US market, where it would be a slower and heavier competitor to the wide range of cheap imported electric bicycles. However, its iconic design and cultural legacy have kept enthusiasm up for riders who have managed to privately import their own models. One Redditor appears to have imported two Honda Zoomer e: models in parts to assemble in the US, while someone else posted a YouTube video of his completely assembled Honda Dax e: model that was launched along the Zoomer e:.

Despite clear consumer interest and a growing market for low-speed electric vehicles, as well as Honda’s own proven interest in growing its electric scooter market, the company hasn’t made any moves to release the Zoomer e: in the US. That’s not surprising since America still lacks a robust electric scooter culture (or even a gasoline scooter culture, for that matter), and anything motorcycle-shaped that doesn’t hit 30+ mph tends to get passed over by mainstream buyers.

But perhaps that could change one day. Technically, bringing the Zoomer e: to the US wouldn’t be a monumental task for Honda. The U.S. is a self-certify country, meaning Honda could design a version that meets federal vehicle safety standards, beef up the motor and controller for higher speeds, and sell it as either a Class 2/3 e-bike, or perhaps more appropriately, as a low-speed motorcycle with a top speed in the 35-45 mph range (55-70 km/h).

With the rise of micromobility, electrification, and growing frustration with car-centric cities, now might actually be the perfect time for a reborn electric Ruckus to hit US roads. But until Honda decides to take that step, American riders will have to keep dreaming – or start importing.

A private import of a Honda Zoomer e: to the US

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BMW ups the ante with the fastest, most powerful electric maxi-scooter

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BMW ups the ante with the fastest, most powerful electric maxi-scooter

BMW Motorrad’s futuristic electric scooter just got its first real refresh since beginning production in 2021. The BMW CE 04, already one of the most capable and stylish electric maxi-scooters on the market, now gets a set of upgraded trim options, new aesthetic touches, and a more robust list of features that aim to make this urban commuter even more appealing to riders looking for serious electric performance on two wheels.

The BMW CE 04 has always stood out for its sci-fi styling and high-performance drivetrain. It’s built on a mid-mounted liquid-cooled motor that puts out 31 kW (42 hp) and 62 Nm of torque. That’s enough to rocket the scooter from 0 to 50 km/h (31 mph) in just 2.6 seconds – quite fast for anything with a step-through frame.

The top speed is electronically limited to 120 km/h (75 mph), making it perfectly capable for city riding and fast enough to hold its own on highway stretches. Range is rated at 130 km (81 miles) on the WMTC cycle, thanks to the 8.9 kWh battery pack tucked low in the frame.

But while the core performance hasn’t changed, BMW’s 2025 update focuses on refining the package and giving riders more options to tailor the scooter to their taste. The new CE 04 is available in three trims: Basic, Avantgarde, and Exclusive.

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The Basic trim keeps things clean and classic with a Lightwhite paint scheme and a clear windshield. It’s subtle, sleek, and very much in line with the CE 04’s clean-lined aesthetic. The Avantgarde model adds a splash of color with a Gravity Blue main body and bright São Paulo Yellow accents, along with a dark windshield and a laser-engraved rim. The top-shelf Exclusive trim is where things get fancy, with a premium Spacesilver metallic paint job, upgraded wind protection, heated grips, a luxury embroidered seat, and its own unique engraved rim treatment.

There are also a few new tech upgrades baked into the options list. Riders can now spec a 6.9 kW quick charger that reduces the 0–80% charge time to just 45 minutes (down from nearly 4 hours with the standard 2.3 kW onboard charger). Tire pressure monitoring, a center stand, and BMW’s “Headlight Pro” adaptive lighting system are also available as add-ons, along with an emergency eCall system and Dynamic Traction Control.

BMW has kept the core riding components in place: a steel-tube chassis, 15-inch wheels, Bosch ABS (with optional ABS Pro), and the impressive 10.25” TFT display with integrated navigation and smartphone connectivity. The under-seat storage still swallows a full-face helmet, and the long, low frame design means the scooter looks like something out of Blade Runner but rides like a luxury commuter.

With these updates, BMW seems to be further cementing the CE 04’s role at the high end of the electric scooter market. It’s not cheap, starting around €12,000 in Europe and around US $12,500 in the US, with prices going up from there depending on configuration. However, the maxi-scooter delivers real motorcycle-grade performance in a package that’s easier to live with for daily riders.

Electrek’s Take

I believe that the CE 04’s biggest strength has always been that it’s not trying to be a toy or a gimmick. It’s a real vehicle. Sure, it’s futuristic and funky looking, but it delivers on its promises. And in a market that’s still surprisingly sparse when it comes to premium electric scooters, BMW has had the lane mostly to itself. That may not last forever, though. LiveWire, Harley-Davidson’s electric spin-off brand, has teased plans for a maxi-scooter-style urban electric vehicle in the coming years, but as of now, it remains something of an undefined future plan.

Meanwhile, BMW is delivering not just a concept bike but a mature, well-equipped, and ready-to-ride electric scooter that keeps improving. For riders who want something faster and more capable than a Class 3 e-bike but aren’t ready to jump to a full-size electric motorcycle, the CE 04 hits a sweet spot. It delivers the performance and capability of a commuter e-motorcycle, yet with the approachability of a scooter. And with these new trims and upgrades, it’s doing it with even more style.

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