Powering the Ramp-Up: Andrew Thomas on Acculon’s Big Investment News

Full Transcript:

Introduction and Recent Developments

Betsy Barry

Hello, everybody! It’s Betsy from Acculon. I’m the communication manager here, and I am joined by Andrew Thomas, our intrepid president. And I thought it would be a good time to have a chat on the heels of our recent big announcement. So thank you for taking the time today, Andrew. I know it’s been a busy couple of weeks, underscoring a busy year, and probably a prelude to an even busier upcoming year. So I appreciate your time today.

So first off, thought maybe we could start out by talking about our big news, which is that we just received a major investment from EcoBattery. And I’m curious what that means for Acculon in the immediate future and maybe over the coming weeks and months.

Andrew Thomas

It’s been a crazy year. mean, forget about Acculon, forget about batteries even. Starting in early April as the tariffs were announced and have kind of raged on, and maybe even longer than I think most people had heard or thought that it would. It just caused uncertainty and turbulence in the markets, and for a business at our stage that’s trying to grow its capabilities, grow its team, and go through the capital-intensive part of bringing on manufacturing capacity in America. Just a tough time to do that. So, today I’m thrilled that we’re through that.

Andrew Thomas

It’s just caused uncertainty and turbulence in the markets, and for a business at our stage that’s trying to grow its capabilities, grow its team, and go through the capital-intensive part of bringing on manufacturing capacity in America. Just a tough time to do that. Today, I’m thrilled that we’re through that and we’re in a really unique position to go and achieve a really big bold dream, which is to make batteries at scale in America. 

Investment Impact and Future Goals

Betsy Barry 

So, when do you foresee the scale, the ramp, which is obviously connected to this investment? What are our movements towards that in the immediate future, do you think?

Andrew Thomas

Well, Betsy, you know what my favorite day of the week is? Yesterday. Yesterday. The answer is yesterday. No, you know, we began pilot production off of our fully automated module line, pumping out a variety of sodium-ion and LFP modules earlier this year. At the right, right at the turn, maybe before the Christmas holiday, if not shortly after, we will reconvene post-New Year’s, will be into serial production. So, pretty exciting times.

Organizational Changes and Business Readiness

Betsy Barry 

And on that note, what do you think is going to be maybe the biggest change over this next year, you know, in terms of our organization?

Andrew Thomas

Gosh. I don’t know if I can stack rank them because they all kind of have to happen at the same time. But you know, in the manufacturing business in general, you know, I tend to think of things as having kind of a readiness, and the readiness is not a technology readiness. It’s not a product readiness. It’s not a manufacturing readiness. It’s a business readiness. And, you know, I think of business readiness of being able to produce a part at tens of units and then hundreds of units and thousands of units. And we’re rapidly going to make the transition into hundreds and then hundreds right into thousands in the next 12 months. And that requires a significant change in the way that we operate our business, from supply chain to human capital, to capital assets and facilities. So a lot of change that has been planned and underway is gonna be moving and is already moving just in the days since we’ve closed the transaction with tremendous velocity.

Betsy Barry

That’s exciting. So on the heels of that, what do you think is in store for us? know a year is, that seems like a long time, but it will be here before we know it.

Andrew Thomas

Right.

Long-term Vision for Acculon and the Battery Industry

Betsy Barry 

I’m curious, actually, about what you think of five years out, what it’ll look like for Acculon in a broader sort of domestic battery industry scope, if you will.

Andrew Thomas

Yeah, I think in terms of industry life cycles, I think we’re coming into an extremely exciting period of time for domestic manufacturing of batteries because I think the bubbles have fully burst. And like any other bubble in the technology space, since the real establishment of VCs and their influence, which has happened in our lifetime…it is after the bubble where we, as a kind of global society, and at least as an American society, figure out how do these businesses need to operate to be sustainable, which means to be profitable. And I think the industry has figured that out in our lifetime.

You know, over the last three years at Acculon, we have certainly figured out where is our value. Where do we have a true right to win in the marketplace, and why. I think we have a very good idea of the answers to both of those questions. And that is that’s driving why we are moving with so much speed and why we are not so scared about some short-term uncertainty in the markets. I think we have a good idea of what we want to be in the short term. And I think we have a real belief that where we are today is a solid foundation to really being one of the largest and hopefully most revered battery manufacturers in America.

Betsy Barry 

I like the loftiness of that goal. think that’s one thing that I can say about being at Acculon is that everybody really believes that that’s going to be the case. And it’s always been that from day one, the belief that we’re doing something important and worthwhile and valuable and not just, you know, it has value, not just in, you know, a domestic battery industry value, but cuts across markets. It cuts across domestic, you know, production. It’s something that’s just valuable, I think, in a global sense, if I can be so bold.

Andrew Thomas

Yeah, I think so. And I would just add, you know, we’ve tried to stay true and not just all talk about having a big bold vision. We really believe in the value of the company, believe in the value of the work that the people here are doing, and are being true about the scalability of what we’re doing. If we had different ambitions, we would have bought a warehouse and imported a bunch of assembly tables from China, and we would have set the ceiling pretty low. Not to say that there’s anything wrong with that, but we would have built a business to achieve that, that kind of purpose. We’re, we built a business, we’ve invested in developing intellectual property and products and manufacturing capacity that can scale, that can truly do the giga thing over the next five years, and that’s what we intend to do.

Team Expansion and Company Culture

Betsy Barry

I think the thing that I’m excited about, too, is just expanding our team. I agree with a lot of what you touched on, and I feel like a lot of what Acculon is about is our people and our expertise and valuing people and cultivating people’s talents and putting them in places where they excel. And I’m excited for the future because we’ll just have a bigger team, more expertise, more collaboration, which is always fruitful ground for interesting things to emerge.

Andrew Thomas

Same, same.

Betsy Barry 

Great. Well, thank you for your time. I know that you’ve got lots of things on your calendar.

Andrew Thomas

It’s not just me. It’s we. Not a lot of idle time when you’re living in dog years at Acculon Energy.

Betsy Barry 

That’s true, but I do like coming on and having these chats every now and again, from time to time, especially in light of our big announcement. I mean, I’m excited. I’m excited for Acculon, but I’m also excited about what this means for domestic manufacturing, for the battery industry as a whole. And so, yeah, I am glad that you showed up to chat today. I appreciate it. And we’ll chat again sometime soon.

Andrew Thomas

Alright, Betsy, bye-bye. See you, everybody!

Betsy Barry 

Thanks, Andrew!