Biden’s ‘poster child’ for US-made electric car batteries gets a new CEO

Michigan-based EV battery startup ONE, Our Next Energy, has been touted as “a poster child” of President Biden’s agenda to wean the US off its dependence on China by building batteries in the US, and bringing a flood of new clean tech jobs with it. But after a wave of layoffs and a loss of funding, the company has announced a new CEO. It is replacing its CEO and founder Mujeeb Ijaz, known for his dazzling genius in the field of battery engineering, with a seasoned executive and board member.

ONE, headquartered in Novi, a suburb of Detroit, is one of many such companies in the US working on manufacturing LFP battery cells and developing a domestic battery supply chain to benefit from Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. Founded by Mujeeb Ijaz three years ago, ONE is also one of the most valuable privately held companies in the US. But it has been hit by the industry slowdown and a loss of funding, which triggered its decision to cut its workforce by 25%. Ijaz has also decided to step down and be replaced by board member Paul Humphries, who brings more than 40 years of experience and is coming out of retirement from Flex Ltd. The switch is effective immediately.

Ijaz, a battery engineer who worked on Apple’s top-secret electric car project, will now serve as CTO, leading product engineering, and vice-chairman of the board. He worked prior at a company funded by the Obama administration called A123 Systems, which went bankrupt and its technology acquired by China’s Wanxiang Group back in 2013. “With that sale, America’s chance to lead in battery technology was fumbled away to China,” reports Automotive News.

ONE is now delivering prototype versions of lithium iron phosphate battery packs to several companies for testing, with the aim of producing battery cells next year at a new $1.6 billion factory in Van Buren Township, Michigan. The world’s biggest LFP battery producers are China’s Contemporary Amperex Technologies and BYD Co.

Last month, the company announced that it has cut 128 salaried and hourly workers from its staff of roughly 500 people as part of a revised business plan, it said. While at the time, the company kept the reasoning vague in saying it was “in response to market conditions,” it now seems linked to the fact that London’s Just Climate, an investment fund, decided against leading ONE’s Series C funding round with its $100 million investment, reports Automotive News.

Part of the plan now is to pull back spending based on what the company says is “lower EV demands,” and to delay its new battery plant in Van Buren until it can lock in new customers. Putting Humphries, a seasoned executive with 40 years of manufacturing and operations experience, at the helm is a crucial part of that plan. Apparently, Ijaz, while praised for his engineering prowess, lacked experience in leading the company and overspent and overhired, according to unnamed sources who spoke to Automotive News. “I realized that actually I have a lot to learn about running a billion-dollar company,” Ijaz told the journal in an interview. “We don’t want to lose this opportunity.”