Sacramento Sparkz factory leads North America in lithium battery production

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. —

Sparkz has launched a lithium battery manufacturing facility in Sacramento, producing products made entirely in the United States.

The CEO said it’s the first in North America to produce these materials domestically.

 

Sanjiv Malhotra emphasized the importance of keeping the supply chain within the United States and away from China, hoping that tariffs on Chinese goods will encourage more American businesses to seek out their products.

 

“This is the only production facility in North America making the cathode active material for this kind of lithium battery,” said Malhotra.

 

Malhotra owns patents and developed technology that does not rely on nickel or cobalt, which are traditionally used in lithium batteries and are made in China.

 

“Lithium comes to us from North Carolina. Iron comes to us from Minnesota, and phosphate that comes to us from Florida,” he said. “It’s all 100% U.S.-based supply chain.”

 

The Sparkz battery is developed through a three-step process: starting with the material, making the cell, and then creating the complete battery pack.

 

The batteries can power large grids or data centers for energy storage and commercial vehicles like ATVs, trucks, school buses and forklifts.

 

The factory has sparked the interest of the Sacramento Electric Vehicle Association, whose members received a behind-the-scenes look at how the batteries and materials are made.

 

“Even though Sparkz is maybe concentrating more on the stationary storage portion of it rather than car batteries, it’s still something that we’re interested in from the environmental side,” said President Peter Mackin.

 

Malhotra said while Sparkz is producing this technology for energy needs now, they’re also looking ahead to what’s next.

 

“I think we’ve done it fairly efficiently. It hasn’t taken us decades,” he said. “Let’s see what the next five years looks like.”

 

Sparkz is currently hiring and will need to fill more positions as it continues to expand and fill the 130,000-square-foot warehouse.

 

For media inquiries, please contact Abby Rodriguez at media@sparkz.energy.

Founder & CEO

Dr. Sanjiv Malhotra

Dr. Sanjiv Malhotra is the founder and CEO of Sparkz—the battery start-up reinventing the energy supply chain.

 

Malhotra has been a leader in the energy sector for nearly three decades as a founder, investor and executive. Most recently, he served as the inaugural director for the Energy Investor Center at the U.S Department of Energy (DOE), serving under both Democratic and Republican administrations.

 

At DOE, Malhotra led the Obama Administration’s initiative to boost public-private partnerships to accelerate the commercialization of technologies developed in national research centers like Oak Ridge National Labs.

 

Malhotra was recruited to the Department of Energy after a successful exit of Oorja Protonics—the world leader in methanol fuel cells—which he founded and led as CEO for 10 years. Oorja raised $50 Million in equity financing from leading VCs such as Sequoia, DAG Ventures, Artis Capital and others during his tenure. He boosted Oorja’s revenue and profitability growth, while expanding operations globally in Japan, China, South Africa, Mexico, and India.

 

Oorja was acquired in 2014 by the Private Equity firm MinXing Growth Fund.

 

As an investor and consultant, Malhotra has worked at leading venture capital firms, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers as an advisor on clean energy and advanced materials.

 

Earlier in his career, Malhotra led the engineering and product development team at H Power, a pioneer in hydrogen fuel cells. As part of the management team, he managed the successful IPO, which raised more than $100 million in August 2000.

 

He began his career as a post-doctoral fellow at the renowned Lawrence Berkeley National Labs on electrochemical storage systems. Dr. Malhotra has authored seven patents and more than 40 publications in various fields of energy storage technology and materials. He holds a PhD in chemical engineering and an M.B.A from University of Iowa.