Stealthy battery company backed by Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos has a lot to prove

Published

4 years ago

August 28, 2021

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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.

Environment

Tesla is heading into multi-billion-dollar iceberg of its own making

Published

2 hours ago

October 20, 2025

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Tesla is heading into multi-billion-dollar iceberg of its own making

Tesla’s ‘Full Self-Driving Supervised’ expansion is back firing as it exposes its shortcomings. Customers left without promised features are growing discontent and demanding to compensated.

It’s turning into a multi-billion-dollar iceberg of Tesla’s own making.

In 2016, Tesla proudly announced that all its vehicles produced onward are equipped with “all the hardware for full self-driving,” which would be delivered through future software updates.

The automaker turned out to be significantly wrong about that.

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At the time, it was producing its electric vehicles with a hardware suite known as HW2, which it had to upgrade to HW3 because it couldn’t support self-driving (FSD) capability.

HW3 was produced in vehicles from 2019 to 2023 and Tesla switched to HW4 in 2024.

At first, CEO Elon Musk claimed that FSD software updates on newer HW4 cars would lag roughly 6 months behind updates to HW3 cars to make sure to deliver the promised self-driving capability to those who have been waiting and paid for the promised capabiltiy a long time ago.

That strategy barely lasted a few months. Tesla quickly started releasing new FSD updates to HW4 cars first and it now hasn’t released a significant update to HW3 cars in close to a year.

Tesla only admitted in January 2025 that HW3 won’t be able to support unsupervised self-driving. Musk claimed that Tesla would retrofit the computers, but there has been no word about it for 10 months.

Tesla customers are starting to be fed up.

The catalyst is Tesla’s current FSD expansion in international markets. Previously, Tesla’s FSD was limited to North America, but over the last year, the automaker has been expanding FSD to China and now Australia and New Zealand.

However, the expansion is back-firing as HW3 owners are starting to realize that they will never get what they paid for.

In Australia and NZ, Tesla only launched FSD on HW4 vehicles with no clear plan for HW3, which the automaker already admitted won’t support unsupervised self-driving. The automaker appears to have only adapted its latest version of FSD for HW4 to the Australian market.

To add to the insult, with the launch of FSD in Australia, Tesla started to offer FSD subcriptions for $149 AUD a month for both HW3 and HW3 cars despite the software not being available for HW3.

HW3 owners reached out to Electrek after seeing this in their app:

It’s unclear why would Tesla sell a subcription to something that doesn’t even exist, but it is not helping build confidence with customers.

To try to appease owners, Tesla started sending emails to Australia HW3 owners offering $5,000 discounts on new inventory vehicles when transfering their FSD package:

However, this offer is misleading in itself, as it is not actually specific to HW3 owners as the email leads people to believe.

A visit on Tesla’s Australia inventory website shows that Tesla is offering a $5,000 disounct on all inventory vehicles with FSD for any buyer:

Therefore, it has nothing to do with “loyalty”.

As we recently reported, thousands of Tesla owners have now joined a class action lawsuit in Australia over Tesla misleading customers with its self-driving promises.

It adds to similar ongoing lawsuits in the US and China.

With hundreds of thousands of FSD customers who paid up to $15,000 for package, Tesla is on the hook for billions of dollars in compensations or retrofits in the best-case scenario.

Electrek’s Take

We are seeing more people losing patience and it is only going to get worse.

There were a lot of interesting interactions on this post, which is pretty mild in my opinion. And yet, you see the usual Elon lemmings downplaying Tesla not delivering features it promised:

Dear @Tesla_AI Team,
I am writing on behalf of the community of Tesla owners equipped with Hardware 3 (HW3) who have purchased the Full Self-Driving (FSD) capability. As dedicated supporters of Tesla’s mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy and advance…

— shawn.car◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️ (@shawncarelli) October 19, 2025

I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble, but we need to be realistic here. If you are a HW3 owner and still think that Tesla is going to retrofit your up to 10-years-old car with a computer that is going to make self-driving, you are being delusional.

Tesla will have to end up compensating owners and at this point, I have serious doubts that it will do it by itself without being forced through courts.

Furthermore, it shouldn’t be just people who bought FSD. Tesla said that all cars had the hardware capable of self-driving whether people bought the software package or not. If that’s not true, it affects the resale value of the vehicle regardless of if someone purchased the package.

I have a fairly simple solution for Tesla to make it right.

Tesla needs to offer all HW3 owners a $5,000 loyalty discount, that goes on top of all other incentive program, when upgrading to a new car.

As for HW3 owners who bought FSD, which basically turned out to be an interest free loan to Tesla for years, the automaker needs to offer free FSD transfer and a $10,000 discount on a car upgrade.

While this might sound like a lot, I think it’s in line with the incredible liability that Tesla is facing from all the on going lawsuits.

On top of it, it will go a long way to regain the trust of long-time customers, which Tesla swindled by selling them features it simply can’t deliver.

The main reason why I think Tesla doesn’t want to do that is that it will likely have to do the same thing to HW4 owners in the next few years and that would be the death of the company.

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Environment

From $189 a month: 5 of the best EV lease deals in October [Updated]

Published

3 hours ago

October 20, 2025

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From $189 a month: 5 of the best EV lease deals in October [Updated]

October EV lease deals — 2025 Ford Mustang Mach-E (Photo: Ford)

EV lease prices look better than expected, despite the end of the federal tax credit and the 25% import tariff being in place. Prices have crept up compared to last month, but several automakers have covered the $7,500 credit themselves or added extra incentives, and the price of one EV even dropped. Here are October’s top EV lease deals, spotted by our friends at CarsDirect.

Hyundai-IONIQ-5-N-Essentials — Hyundai IONIQ 5 N (Photo: Hyundai)

2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 lease from $189/month

The updated 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 SE RWD Standard Range remains one of the standout EV lease deals this month, holding steady even after the end of the federal EV tax credit and new import tariffs. Through November 3, you can lease one for $189 a month for 36 months (10,000 miles per year) with $3,999 due at signing. That works out to an effective monthly cost of about $300 – just $40 more than September.

The price bump is far smaller than many expected, especially with Hyundai’s $17,000 in lease cash factored in. And if you’re tempted by an upgrade, the SEL RWD trim is just $50 more per month under the same terms. You’ll get a model that’s roughly $7,000 more in value and $18,750 in savings.

The IONIQ 5 SE RWD Standard Range offers an EPA-estimated 245 miles of range, and this particular offer is available in the Los Angeles and greater California metro areas.

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Click here to find a local dealer that may have the Hyundai IONIQ 5 in stock. –trusted affiliate link

Hyundai-free-charger-EVs-IONIQ-6 — 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited (Photo: Hyundai)

2025 Hyundai IONIQ 6 lease from $189/month

The 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 6 SE RWD Standard Range is tied with its sibling for the most affordable EV lease deal this month, offering standout value even after the federal EV tax credit ended. In the California metro area, you can lease it for $189 per month for 36 months (10,000 miles per year) with $3,999 due at signing, and Hyundai is sweetening the deal with $13,250 in lease cash.

That brings the effective monthly cost to around $300, which is only $20 more than last month when the tax credit was still active. With an EPA-estimated 240 miles of range, 149 horsepower, fast-charging capabilities, and a sleek, distinctive design, the IONIQ 6 remains a fan favorite. This offer is valid through November 3.

Click here to find a local dealer that may have the Hyundai IONIQ 6 in stock. –trusted affiliate link

2025-Kia-Niro-EV-prices — 2025 Kia Niro (Photo: Kia)

2025 Kia Niro lease from $209/month

The 2025 Kia Niro Wind EV returns to our top 5 this month with an impressive regional lease deal. You can lease the Niro Wind EV for $209 per month for 24 months (10,000 miles per year) with $3,999 due at signing. The offer includes $11,800 in lease cash and $14,940 in total savings, bringing the effective monthly cost to about $376. That’s about $80 more per month than September’s tax credit-incentivized deal at $129, but it’s still a solid offer given the policy changes.

This deal is available to California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington residents through November 3.

Click here to find a local dealer that may have the Kia Niro in stock. –trusted affiliate link

2025 Ford Mustang Mach-E from $219/month

The 2025 Ford Mustang Mach-E Select RWD with Package 100A is offering bigger savings this month, making it an even stronger pick for EV shoppers. Known for its premium design and an EPA-estimated 300 miles of range, the Mach-E remains a favorite among drivers who want style and substance.

You can now lease it for $219 per month for 24 months (10,500 miles per year) with $4,499 due at signing. That’s $20 less per month than September’s advertised deal, though the term is shorter. With an effective monthly cost of about $406, it’s only $45 more than last month, a smaller jump than many expected.

The offer includes $6,750 in lease cash for qualified lessees, plus a free Ford Charging Station Pro with complimentary home installation – a rare perk. If you already have a home charger, you can choose an extra $2,000 in bonus cash instead.

This deal is currently available in California through January 5, 2026. Ford is offering discounted leases on EVs through December.

Click here to find a local dealer that may have the Ford Mustang Mach-E in stock. –trusted affiliate link

Chevy-Equinox-EV — Chevrolet Equinox (Photo: Chevrolet)

2025 Chevrolet Equinox from $269/month

Through November 3, you can lease the 2025 Chevrolet Equinox EV 2LT for $269 per month for 24 months (10,000 miles per year) with just $679 due at signing – one of the lowest upfront costs we’ve seen lately. That works out to an effective monthly cost of around $297. It’s got a quirk, though – this deal excludes Black Cloth Seats.

This is one of the rare EVs to see a price drop in the post-tax-credit era. Compared to September’s offer of $309 a month with $2,609 due at signing, this Chevy Equinox lease is $121 cheaper in effective monthly cost.

The deal is available nationwide for current Chevrolet lessees or those switching from another brand, and it includes a $2,250 loyalty or conquest bonus on top of $1,750 in lease cash. Want to drive away with the newest model? You can upgrade for just $30 more per month.

With an EPA-estimated 319 miles of range, the 2025 Equinox EV 2LT offers solid value for drivers looking to get into Chevy’s newest electric SUV.

Click here to find a local dealer that may have the Chevrolet Equinox in stock. –trusted affiliate link

Jeep’s electric off-roader is finally almost here and it’s ready to join the Wrangler

Published

4 hours ago

October 20, 2025

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Jeep's electric off-roader is finally almost here and it's ready to join the Wrangler

The Recon EV will be revealed in full soon. Jeep’s CEO shut down rumors that the Wrangler-sized electric off-roader was dead, saying the Recon EV will go on sale shortly.

Jeep’s electric off-roader will go on sale in Spring 2026

Although the Recon was initially set to debut in 2023 with sales starting the following year, don’t count it out just yet.

Bob Broderdorf, who took over the reins as Jeep’s new CEO in February, says rumors that the electric off-roader has been cancelled are far from true.

In fact, Jeep plans to sell it, even if you don’t want it. According to MotorTrend, Broderdorf is promising more details on the Recon EV are coming soon with sales kicking off next spring.

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With Stellantis shaking up electrification plans, speculation began to spread that the Jeep Recon EV would be next to get the axe. Luckily, it doesn’t look like that will be the case.

Jeep first unveiled the Recon EV as a concept in 2022, promising the electric off-roader would be not only be able to tackle the Rubicon trail with enough charge to get back to town and recharge. It’s not a replacement, but the Recon is “inspired by the legendary Wrangler,” according to Jeep.

The Recon will be Jeep’s first true off-road EV. Leading up to its official debut, we’ve seen the electric off-roader out in the wild a few times now.

Spy shots of the interior surfaced on JeepReconForum last year, confirming the SUV will feature Jeep’s signature Selec-Terrain traction control system with different modes like “Rock” and “Mud.” The closer it gets to its final form, the more the Recon looks like a Ford Bronco rather than the Wrangler.

Even if it doesn’t sell well, Jeep considers the all-electric Recon as a key model as it looks to corner the off-road market.

Stellantis will build the Recon at its Toluca, Mexico plant alongside the Wagoneer S, Jeep’s first electric SUV in North America. The Jeep Cherokee and Compass are also built at the facility, all of which share the same STLA Large platform.

Jeep-Recon-EV — Jeep Recon Moab 4xe (source: JeepReconForum)

“We can shift and move. It is OK if [Recon] is low volume,” Broderdorf said, adding “If I have to sell more Cherokees, so be it.”

Although Jeep has yet to reveal final specs and prices, the Recon EV is expected to debut with about 350 miles of range. Prices are expected to start at around $60,000, or slightly less than the Wagoneer S. More premium trims, like the MOAB and Rubicon could cost closer to $80,000.

Broderdorf promised more details are coming soon. He also said the company plans to reveal more info on the future Wrangler shortly. Will we see an electric Wrangler? If so, it likely won’t be until the next generation in 2028.

Until then, Jeep will use the Recon EV and Wrangler as a twin threat as it looks to gain control of the off-road market.

While the Recon will arrive soon, Stellantis cancelled Ram’s first fully electric pickup and trimmed the Dodge Charger EV to just one variant.

Jeep’s CEO sees a market for electric vehicles, in particular the Recon. “We’ve got a great car. We’ve already built it. We should sell it, we should learn. I don’t know how many it will be. I’m not really that worried about it,” Broderdorf said. Even with the $7,500 federal tax credit now expired, Jeep expects EVs to sell in markets like California.

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