WEBVTT 00:00.720 --> 00:02.920 - [Lee] Okay. - [Josh] Here's Lee Cougar. 00:02.920 --> 00:04.800 - Alright, thanks Josh. 00:04.800 --> 00:06.700 Good morning, and thank you for coming 00:07.996 --> 00:08.829 to see our presentation and demonstrate. 00:08.829 --> 00:10.280 We have a couple of very exciting things 00:10.280 --> 00:12.670 to show you related to battery technology. 00:12.670 --> 00:13.942 So Cuberg is a startup based 00:13.942 --> 00:16.470 in the bay area, right out of Standford originally, 00:16.470 --> 00:18.240 couple years ago, we're developing a next 00:18.240 --> 00:20.580 generation battery technology that is 00:20.580 --> 00:22.610 ultra lightweight and extremely safe, 00:22.610 --> 00:24.514 and we think it has a number of very impactful 00:24.514 --> 00:26.793 applications for the US Army. 00:27.813 --> 00:29.450 The problem with lithium ion batteries 00:29.450 --> 00:31.500 currently is pretty well known to the Army. 00:31.500 --> 00:34.231 They're too heavy, soldiers carry 15 to 25 pounds 00:34.231 --> 00:37.140 of batteries on a typical 72 hour mission, 00:37.140 --> 00:38.926 and it really is a significant weight. 00:38.926 --> 00:41.061 And also safety challenges, which prevent us 00:41.061 --> 00:43.573 from going to higher energy batteries 00:43.573 --> 00:47.040 that can power electronics for longer periods of time. 00:47.040 --> 00:48.390 Energy and safety are the two 00:48.390 --> 00:50.310 main issues with battery technology. 00:50.310 --> 00:52.510 Cuberg has a new chemistry which we'll 00:52.510 --> 00:55.308 talk more about later, but from a very high level, 00:55.308 --> 00:57.922 presents 80% more energy for a given 00:57.922 --> 01:00.690 amount of weight and volume compared 01:00.690 --> 01:02.330 to lithium ion batteries, and this 01:02.330 --> 01:04.340 is not some sort of nebulous claim. 01:04.340 --> 01:06.730 We've actually built actual commercial prototypes, 01:06.730 --> 01:08.680 you can weigh them, you can measure the energy, 01:08.680 --> 01:10.420 and they do deliver 80% more energy 01:10.420 --> 01:11.570 than the best lithium ion batteries 01:11.570 --> 01:13.610 in the world today already. 01:13.610 --> 01:15.360 Also greatly improved safety, we've 01:15.360 --> 01:17.033 done all kinds of abuse and safety test, 01:17.033 --> 01:19.372 nail puncture, overcharge, overheating, 01:19.372 --> 01:22.940 short circuiting, crushing them and so forth. 01:22.940 --> 01:25.100 Extremely safe, much better than most 01:25.100 --> 01:26.681 lithium-ion chemistries out there today, 01:26.681 --> 01:29.600 and this technology is perhaps most importantly, 01:29.600 --> 01:31.530 beyond the importance of safety benefits, 01:31.530 --> 01:33.810 is that it's extremely easy to manufacture. 01:33.810 --> 01:35.540 We can leverage the entire existing 01:35.540 --> 01:38.490 manufacturing ecosystem of the lithium-ion industry, 01:38.490 --> 01:40.180 which means we don't need to redeploy 01:40.180 --> 01:42.460 all that capitol, build all new equipment, 01:42.460 --> 01:44.590 it's actually a contract manufacturing approach, 01:44.590 --> 01:47.480 that makes it very easy and simple for us to scale up. 01:47.480 --> 01:49.414 So, I know you guys are really excited 01:49.414 --> 01:51.700 about Army applications and about the demos 01:51.700 --> 01:52.880 that we're gonna do, so I'm gonna 01:52.880 --> 01:55.130 start things off with some of the really 01:55.130 --> 01:56.840 exciting stuff that we have for you. 01:56.840 --> 01:59.414 So we identified two most promising areas 01:59.414 --> 02:02.580 for Cubert's battery technology with the Army. 02:02.580 --> 02:05.359 The first one is in future vertical lift, 02:05.359 --> 02:09.080 and beyond, I guess just typical helicopters 02:09.080 --> 02:10.110 and so forth, there's all kinds of 02:10.110 --> 02:12.360 other vertical lift that are of interest to the Army. 02:12.360 --> 02:14.910 I've identified a few over here, electric flight, 02:14.910 --> 02:16.290 broadly speaking, is where batteries 02:16.290 --> 02:18.280 intercept with vertical lift. 02:18.280 --> 02:19.573 One example is something like this 02:19.573 --> 02:24.140 man-portable electric UAS, unmanned aerial system. 02:24.140 --> 02:26.750 This one, I believe is an aero-environment Puma, 02:26.750 --> 02:28.710 it's typically used by soldiers in the field. 02:28.710 --> 02:30.315 It's a backpackable model that you 02:30.315 --> 02:32.140 assemble, it has batteries in it, 02:32.140 --> 02:33.876 and then you basically toss it and it flies 02:33.876 --> 02:36.061 for a period of time, a couple hours, 02:36.061 --> 02:39.070 and it can do surveillance for soldiers out in the field. 02:39.070 --> 02:41.040 But limited by how long it can fly 02:41.040 --> 02:42.743 because of the way the battery is. 02:42.743 --> 02:44.810 Other potential future applications 02:44.810 --> 02:46.277 for electric flight with the Army, 02:46.277 --> 02:48.471 for example, Boeing is currently making 02:48.471 --> 02:50.461 one platform of the cargo air vehicle, 02:50.461 --> 02:53.160 this is a really large octo-copter, 02:53.160 --> 02:54.530 eight propellors, and carries several 02:54.530 --> 02:56.870 hundred pounds of cargo, electrically powered, 02:56.870 --> 02:58.568 can fly with our battery technology 02:58.568 --> 03:00.286 up to 45 minutes at a time, and great 03:00.286 --> 03:03.148 for delivery and logistics of that 03:03.148 --> 03:05.884 last mile into the battlefield. 03:05.884 --> 03:08.710 Even more future thinking, autonomous 03:08.710 --> 03:10.509 eletrovertical takeoff and landing aircraft, 03:10.509 --> 03:14.200 if you have looked at the Uber Elevate 03:14.200 --> 03:16.522 for example, this is in the consumer space 03:16.522 --> 03:17.990 where a lot of these things are heading, 03:17.990 --> 03:19.657 but certainly all kinds of Army applications 03:19.657 --> 03:20.883 for this kind of autonomous vehicles 03:20.883 --> 03:23.480 that can shuttle passengers or cargo 03:23.480 --> 03:26.090 into battlefields without exposing soldiers to risk, 03:26.090 --> 03:28.010 and also much, much quieter and more stealthy 03:28.010 --> 03:30.260 compared to conventional helicopters. 03:30.260 --> 03:31.373 And so all of these rely on 03:31.373 --> 03:33.460 much improved battery technology, 03:33.460 --> 03:34.500 and none of these technologies are 03:34.500 --> 03:36.456 really that viable with existing 03:36.456 --> 03:38.330 lithium ion batteries that need something 03:38.330 --> 03:40.050 that's much lighter weight to really enable 03:40.050 --> 03:42.140 the flight times and mission profiles that 03:42.140 --> 03:44.280 you want for Army applications. 03:44.280 --> 03:47.860 And so based on this vertical, we thought 03:47.860 --> 03:51.130 about what is the most interesting demo we can possibly do? 03:51.130 --> 03:52.810 Back in October in our phase three, 03:52.810 --> 03:54.600 we presented these opportunities but 03:54.600 --> 03:55.850 we didn't have a demo in mind yet, 03:55.850 --> 03:57.974 and since then we've figured out the best possible demo. 03:57.974 --> 04:00.399 And if you think about batteries, 04:00.399 --> 04:03.137 what you need out of them, is you need reliability, 04:03.137 --> 04:04.871 you need very high energy, and you 04:04.871 --> 04:06.497 need very high power, which means 04:06.497 --> 04:08.756 you can power something that's extremely intensive, 04:08.756 --> 04:11.170 and if your battery can do all that, 04:11.170 --> 04:12.217 then you have proven out all the 04:12.217 --> 04:13.860 performance metrics that you need 04:13.860 --> 04:15.547 to power any sort of application. 04:15.547 --> 04:17.650 And of these applications actually, 04:17.650 --> 04:19.606 the most strenuous one is something 04:19.606 --> 04:21.910 similar to that cargo air vehicle, 04:21.910 --> 04:23.730 because it's an entirely vertical 04:23.730 --> 04:26.590 takeoff and landing aircraft, which means 04:26.590 --> 04:28.320 that's extremely energy-intensive, 04:28.320 --> 04:30.994 very weight sensitive, and also requires 04:30.994 --> 04:33.040 large amounts of power to actually 04:33.040 --> 04:35.070 do that vertical takeoff with those propellors. 04:35.070 --> 04:36.760 And so we actually took our battery, 04:36.760 --> 04:40.920 which last October was about TRL five or so, 04:40.920 --> 04:43.160 and we've actually left ahead substantially. 04:43.160 --> 04:45.770 We're now at TRL seven, and we have a working, 04:45.770 --> 04:48.060 functional battery pack assembled 04:48.060 --> 04:50.590 with commercial prototypes, and this 04:50.590 --> 04:53.760 can actually power a drone with very, 04:53.760 --> 04:55.730 very interesting flight times. 04:55.730 --> 04:58.010 So the first part of my demo is 04:58.010 --> 04:59.610 I'm just gonna show this around. 04:59.610 --> 05:01.640 It's still an early engineering prototype, 05:01.640 --> 05:04.040 it's basically two pieces of carbon-fiber board 05:04.040 --> 05:06.340 with a couple of binder clips attached to it 05:06.340 --> 05:08.780 to file a little bit of fixed pressure to the cell. 05:08.780 --> 05:10.855 As you can see in there, there's a stack of our cells. 05:10.855 --> 05:15.345 We have nine cells in there, and parallel in it's series. 05:15.345 --> 05:18.800 And so this battery, pretty lightweight, 05:18.800 --> 05:20.400 but it stores a tremendous amount 05:20.400 --> 05:22.157 of energy for powering a drone. 05:22.157 --> 05:24.403 And so even with this early engineering prototype 05:24.403 --> 05:27.580 which does not have an optimized path design, 05:27.580 --> 05:31.654 it's really a very early, crude prototype cutout, 05:31.654 --> 05:34.690 can already power a drone for 70% 05:34.690 --> 05:36.400 longer flight time compared to one 05:36.400 --> 05:37.520 powered with lithium ion battery. 05:37.520 --> 05:39.723 It's a generational leap in performance, 05:39.723 --> 05:41.840 and in fact, what's so unique about this 05:41.840 --> 05:43.940 is if you have a look at the battery industry, 05:43.940 --> 05:45.814 you've seen probably a lot of companies making big claims, 05:45.814 --> 05:48.280 but in fact, if you actually look online, 05:48.280 --> 05:50.462 nobody has ever demonstrated successfully 05:50.462 --> 05:52.850 a vertical takeoff drone powered 05:52.850 --> 05:54.509 by a next generation battery. 05:54.509 --> 05:57.329 Typically, it's because they have very high power, 05:57.329 --> 06:00.720 but low energy, or they have very high energy or low power. 06:00.720 --> 06:02.270 We're the first company that's successfully 06:02.270 --> 06:04.000 done this with a next gen chemistry 06:04.000 --> 06:05.500 that can deliver both at the same time 06:05.500 --> 06:07.558 and actually fly a commercial product 06:07.558 --> 06:09.620 with much better performance. 06:09.620 --> 06:12.910 So this video is basically a comparison of those two 06:12.910 --> 06:16.240 vehicles, one powered by lithium ion, 06:16.240 --> 06:19.840 and one powered by Cubert's lithium metal battery. 06:19.840 --> 06:22.210 And so this is not sped up, so it's 06:22.210 --> 06:25.042 going to be flying, essentially, in real time, 06:25.042 --> 06:27.770 and I'm just explaining what you're gonna see. 06:27.770 --> 06:29.180 On the left is a drone, we took a video 06:29.180 --> 06:30.910 of lithium ion, and then on the right 06:30.910 --> 06:33.970 is one powered by Cuberg's lithium metal battery. 06:33.970 --> 06:36.380 And so this is the first ever demonstrated flight 06:36.380 --> 06:38.658 with the next gen chemistry, successful takeoff 06:38.658 --> 06:40.480 and successful flight, and that's also 06:40.480 --> 06:42.000 what we're gonna show you later today here 06:42.000 --> 06:43.950 in this key, there's actually a real-life 06:43.950 --> 06:46.410 demonstration with our battery pack. 06:46.410 --> 06:47.676 So I'll just leave it running throughout 06:47.676 --> 06:49.765 the presentation, and you can just 06:49.765 --> 06:52.260 watch it occasionally and see how they fly. 06:52.260 --> 06:55.569 I won't spoil it ahead of time, but you can check it out. 06:55.569 --> 06:57.850 And I'll hand this over to Roger 06:57.850 --> 07:00.010 so he can set up our drone for a demo 07:00.010 --> 07:01.950 at the end of the presentation. 07:01.950 --> 07:05.573 So that is a protocol lift application. 07:05.573 --> 07:07.480 The other really exciting application 07:07.480 --> 07:09.684 is in soldier lethality, and this really 07:09.684 --> 07:12.960 corresponds to the fact that soldiers these days 07:12.960 --> 07:14.580 are carrying increasing numbers of 07:14.580 --> 07:16.360 electronics and equipment on them 07:16.360 --> 07:18.401 that are very power-hungry and need batteries. 07:18.401 --> 07:21.730 So night vision goggles, increasingly 07:21.730 --> 07:23.323 augmented reality is a really big area 07:23.323 --> 07:26.010 of innovation for the army, also, certainly, 07:26.010 --> 07:27.803 robotic mules for carrying payloads, 07:27.803 --> 07:30.300 exoskeletons, all of these are 07:30.300 --> 07:32.341 coming online, all of them are very power hungry, 07:32.341 --> 07:35.020 weighed down by the weight of lithium-ion batteries. 07:35.020 --> 07:37.590 If you look typically at what soldiers use 07:38.761 --> 07:40.340 for portable power, it's typically, 07:40.340 --> 07:42.080 most commonly the one on the left, 07:42.080 --> 07:44.001 the BB-2590, it's the most common 07:44.001 --> 07:46.990 rechargeable battery pack that soldiers carry, 07:46.990 --> 07:48.643 and they may carry on the order of five 07:48.643 --> 07:51.170 to 10 of these things on the field, 07:51.170 --> 07:54.530 and so each of these can be used 07:54.530 --> 07:57.080 to power a variety of communications equipment, 07:57.080 --> 08:00.180 and other types of use cases, conformal 08:00.180 --> 08:04.250 wearable battery is now starting to come online, 08:04.250 --> 08:05.710 and it's a little lighter, but still 08:05.710 --> 08:06.840 has a lot of the challenges from 08:06.840 --> 08:10.172 the lithium ion because it's using lithium ion cells. 08:10.172 --> 08:13.160 So the BB-2590, I decided, in terms 08:13.160 --> 08:14.490 of soldier portable power, this is 08:14.490 --> 08:17.120 the most meaningful demonstration, 08:17.120 --> 08:18.470 because this is the most common single 08:18.470 --> 08:20.052 format for soldier power, and it 08:20.052 --> 08:21.736 can have a product that fits into 08:21.736 --> 08:24.232 that exact same BB-2590 drop in solution 08:24.232 --> 08:26.490 without any re-engineering, you just 08:26.490 --> 08:28.240 wire up with these cells, and you 08:28.240 --> 08:30.120 can deliver a substantial weight savings, 08:30.120 --> 08:31.552 it's a very, very clear demonstration 08:31.552 --> 08:34.070 of what we can do with our technology. 08:34.070 --> 08:37.120 So right now, it's used to power radios, robots, jammers. 08:37.120 --> 08:38.237 Basically you can string these things up 08:38.237 --> 08:41.100 into multiple large sized packs and 08:41.100 --> 08:42.819 power anything from small radio to a large robot, 08:42.819 --> 08:46.700 for example, or an exoskeleton with these things currently. 08:46.700 --> 08:48.600 Soldiers right now already carry 15 to 25 08:48.600 --> 08:49.740 pounds of batteries, I've said. 08:49.740 --> 08:51.970 But actually, even beyond this, 08:51.970 --> 08:53.158 the projections currently show that 08:53.158 --> 08:56.010 by 2025, energy use for the typical 08:56.010 --> 08:59.910 soldier is expected to double for a typical 72 hour mission, 08:59.910 --> 09:01.620 and then they also are wanting to push 09:01.620 --> 09:03.770 the typical mission profile for dismounted 09:03.770 --> 09:05.960 soldiers beyond 72 hours, which will 09:05.960 --> 09:07.730 also require increasing energy. 09:07.730 --> 09:09.380 And so, if no improvements are made 09:09.380 --> 09:11.200 to the battery packs, we're talking 09:11.200 --> 09:12.680 about soldiers having to carry 50 pounds 09:12.680 --> 09:15.270 of batteries in five to six years time frame, 09:15.270 --> 09:16.960 which is obviously not viable. 09:16.960 --> 09:19.251 So we do need a leap here in terms of performance, 09:19.251 --> 09:24.251 and so this battery right here is what we've locked up. 09:24.881 --> 09:27.340 So this one on the left is a commercial 09:27.340 --> 09:29.950 BB-2590 that we bought online from Bren Tronics, 09:29.950 --> 09:31.970 one of the typical Army suppliers, 09:31.970 --> 09:34.540 and this one is one with essentially 09:34.540 --> 09:35.720 Cubert's technology inside it. 09:35.720 --> 09:37.710 So these two are the same energy, 09:37.710 --> 09:39.890 same performance, but ours is significantly 09:39.890 --> 09:44.560 better in terms of weight and performance and safety. 09:44.560 --> 09:48.000 So our battery actually weighs only 1.8 pounds 09:48.000 --> 09:49.695 compared to 3.1 pounds, so it's a 40% weight savings 09:49.695 --> 09:53.520 in this format and also with significant 09:53.520 --> 09:55.290 safety improvements on top of that. 09:55.290 --> 09:56.490 So I'm just gonna show these around to you, 09:56.490 --> 09:57.730 you can feel the weight difference, 09:57.730 --> 09:59.190 and if you imagine carrying five of 09:59.190 --> 10:00.730 these into the field at a time, 10:00.730 --> 10:02.850 or seven of them, you can see how 10:02.850 --> 10:05.293 significant that is for the typical war fighter. 10:07.930 --> 10:09.130 And so we're pretty excited now 10:09.130 --> 10:11.108 to be working with the Army, this is 10:11.108 --> 10:15.250 under CERDEC, where they do a lot of the 10:15.250 --> 10:16.610 battery work in the US Army, 10:16.610 --> 10:19.152 so for communications in electronics, 10:19.152 --> 10:20.230 and so we are pretty excited to start 10:20.230 --> 10:21.730 working with them in terms of supplying 10:21.730 --> 10:23.170 cells for evaluation and hopefully 10:23.170 --> 10:24.950 integrating now into the actual 10:24.950 --> 10:26.460 field testing where the technology 10:26.460 --> 10:28.670 is essentially ready to be commercialized, 10:28.670 --> 10:30.520 the cells work, performance, they meet 10:30.520 --> 10:33.250 essentially the performance metrics the Army's looking for, 10:33.250 --> 10:34.720 and we just need to start working with the Army 10:34.720 --> 10:37.287 to think about how do we integrate them, 10:37.287 --> 10:38.120 how do we actually test them in the field 10:38.120 --> 10:40.610 to see how they do in a real-life condition. 10:40.610 --> 10:42.560 But fundamentally, the technology 10:42.560 --> 10:44.210 is delivering the weight savings, 10:44.210 --> 10:47.053 and so significant benefits for war fighters. 10:48.840 --> 10:51.460 So those are to be the two demos 10:51.460 --> 10:53.310 we're gonna show, and I'm gonna leave 10:54.544 --> 10:55.930 our drone flight for the end of 10:55.930 --> 10:57.080 the presentation, so a nice final 10:57.080 --> 10:58.460 demo which is very exciting. 10:58.460 --> 10:59.310 But in the meantime, I'm gonna have 10:59.310 --> 11:01.730 to walk you through a little bit more about 11:01.730 --> 11:03.602 what we've done in terms of where 11:03.602 --> 11:06.110 the company has been, how the technology 11:06.110 --> 11:07.730 looks like, and where it's going 11:07.730 --> 11:09.653 in the next six to 12 months. 11:10.550 --> 11:12.130 This is only at four minutes or so, 11:12.130 --> 11:13.610 so they're gonna keep flying for, 11:13.610 --> 11:15.863 watch, and see how that does. 11:15.863 --> 11:17.687 So the company, as I mentioned, 11:17.687 --> 11:20.370 spun out of Stanford University in 2016 11:20.370 --> 11:21.810 out of my PhD and my co-founder's 11:21.810 --> 11:24.410 post-op work in the material science department there. 11:24.410 --> 11:26.850 We've been around for almost three years now. 11:26.850 --> 11:28.660 We have 10 full time employees, 11:28.660 --> 11:30.462 top notch technical talent from 11:30.462 --> 11:33.658 top institutes and companies around the world. 11:33.658 --> 11:35.920 Most recently in last January, we closed 11:35.920 --> 11:37.930 a seed funding round, led by Boeing's 11:37.930 --> 11:39.870 adventure capital group rise the next ventures, 11:39.870 --> 11:41.340 and Boeing has been instrumental 11:41.340 --> 11:43.830 in really working with us to take this to the next step, 11:43.830 --> 11:45.812 beyond just money, they've given 11:45.812 --> 11:46.645 an excellent strategic partner 11:46.645 --> 11:48.171 because they have all kinds of 11:48.171 --> 11:50.258 very interesting applications for batteries, 11:50.258 --> 11:52.590 especially as it pertains to drones, 11:52.590 --> 11:54.420 electric flight and so forth. 11:54.420 --> 11:56.390 And then also, of course, a substantial 11:56.390 --> 11:57.770 and defense presence with Boeing, 11:57.770 --> 12:00.720 so a lot of ongoing work with the company 12:00.720 --> 12:02.450 in terms of adapting this for 12:02.450 --> 12:04.376 defense and for commercial use. 12:04.376 --> 12:06.480 Long-term vision for Boeing's actually 12:06.480 --> 12:08.348 on commercial airplanes, and so there's 12:08.348 --> 12:10.030 two long-term visions for them. 12:10.030 --> 12:12.280 One is this kind of urban vertical 12:12.280 --> 12:13.590 takeoff air taxi that everyone's 12:13.590 --> 12:15.690 talking about these days for urban mobility, 12:15.690 --> 12:18.550 and this requires next generation batteries to work. 12:18.550 --> 12:21.352 Boeing recently demonstrated the first flight 12:21.352 --> 12:23.940 of their passenger air vehicle, vertical takeoff, 12:23.940 --> 12:25.740 but only flies for a very short amount of time, 12:25.740 --> 12:27.500 because the batteries were way too heavy. 12:27.500 --> 12:28.840 And so they need something like 12:28.840 --> 12:30.550 this to enable that to actually work. 12:30.550 --> 12:32.550 The other long-term vision for batteries 12:32.550 --> 12:34.650 with Boeing is actually hybrid electric 12:34.650 --> 12:36.370 flight for passenger airliners, 12:36.370 --> 12:38.563 and why this is interesting is because, 12:38.563 --> 12:41.010 especially for short-haul and medium-haul 12:41.010 --> 12:42.310 flights which are a significant 12:42.310 --> 12:43.881 percentage of flights in the US, 12:43.881 --> 12:46.030 you can imagine that when your flight takes off, 12:46.030 --> 12:47.950 it's spending a lot of time climbing 12:47.950 --> 12:50.160 to top altitude then very soon thereafter, 12:50.160 --> 12:52.290 a couple hours or one hour, it's then landing. 12:52.290 --> 12:54.540 So much of the time is spent either taking off or landing, 12:54.540 --> 12:56.880 and it really maxes out the use of the engines, 12:56.880 --> 12:57.880 but the engines are actually 12:57.880 --> 12:59.800 oversized for that takeoff load, 12:59.800 --> 13:01.790 whereas during the short cruise, 13:01.790 --> 13:03.350 it's using much less energy. 13:03.350 --> 13:04.640 And so a hybrid electric system, 13:04.640 --> 13:06.839 the benefit of this is gonna take up all that slack, 13:06.839 --> 13:10.210 and help to boost the airplane during 13:10.210 --> 13:11.990 the takeoff mode and during landing, 13:11.990 --> 13:13.370 and provide enough power to do that. 13:13.370 --> 13:15.542 But you can actually under size the engines, 13:15.542 --> 13:16.910 and carry much less fuel for the 13:16.910 --> 13:18.490 cruising portion of the flight, 13:18.490 --> 13:20.360 and so significant benefits in terms of 13:20.360 --> 13:22.372 fuel savings for future planes, 13:22.372 --> 13:24.720 and certainly trooper airliners, 13:24.720 --> 13:27.360 but also other types of short-haul flights 13:27.360 --> 13:30.250 where fuel is a big concern, this is a really good benefit. 13:30.250 --> 13:31.590 So that's the long-term vision 13:31.590 --> 13:33.346 in the aerospace industry for us. 13:33.346 --> 13:35.970 We've been supported by a number of federal 13:35.970 --> 13:38.110 and state grants, Cyclotron Road 13:38.110 --> 13:40.256 was a very interesting entrepreneurial 13:40.256 --> 13:42.040 fellowship program, sponsored by the department of energy 13:42.040 --> 13:44.030 at Berkeley Lab, half a million dollars, 13:44.030 --> 13:46.180 two years of mentorship bought with the lab space, 13:46.180 --> 13:48.748 and we've graduated from that August of last year. 13:48.748 --> 13:51.000 Number of other grants from the Department of Energy, 13:51.000 --> 13:53.040 National Science Foundation, California 13:53.040 --> 13:54.310 Energy Commission, and of course, 13:54.310 --> 13:56.573 US Army for the extech search so far. 13:57.970 --> 13:59.550 So the technology, and I'm diving into 13:59.550 --> 14:01.751 a little bit more about what makes this possible, 14:01.751 --> 14:05.006 the core invention of Cuberg is a new 14:05.006 --> 14:08.210 proprietary electrolyte, and this electrolyte 14:08.210 --> 14:10.486 is a liquid, just like normal electrolytes 14:10.486 --> 14:12.899 are today in batteries, but instead 14:12.899 --> 14:15.400 of the flammable, organic solvents 14:15.400 --> 14:16.900 that you use in lithium-ion batteries, 14:16.900 --> 14:18.980 we had an entirely new formulation. 14:18.980 --> 14:20.560 It's a new set of non-flammable 14:20.560 --> 14:22.460 solvents, salts and additives. 14:22.460 --> 14:24.380 That's really tailored for a high-performance 14:24.380 --> 14:27.870 next gen battery system, and that electrolyte 14:27.870 --> 14:29.760 ultimately allows us to make a battery 14:29.760 --> 14:31.088 that's both very, very high-energy, 14:31.088 --> 14:33.037 and very safe at the same time 14:33.037 --> 14:34.750 because of the non-flammable 14:34.750 --> 14:37.150 and thoroughly stable nature of that electrolyte. 14:37.150 --> 14:38.790 Everything else in the system is actually 14:38.790 --> 14:41.836 quite straightforward, relatively. 14:41.836 --> 14:43.870 And that's actually what allows us 14:43.870 --> 14:45.450 to make so much progress recently, 14:45.450 --> 14:47.150 because we don't need to re-invent 14:47.150 --> 14:48.210 the rest of the battery here, we're 14:48.210 --> 14:50.567 buying commercial metal oxide cathodes, 14:50.567 --> 14:54.050 and they're processed in normal lithium-ion plants. 14:54.050 --> 14:55.613 We're buying commercial lithium-ion separators, 14:55.613 --> 14:57.320 we're buying lithium metal, which is 14:57.320 --> 14:58.940 also from the lithium battery industry, 14:58.940 --> 15:01.290 all commercial products, no supply chain risks. 15:01.290 --> 15:03.120 We can assemble all this together with existing 15:03.120 --> 15:05.400 contract manufacturers, and then all we do 15:05.400 --> 15:06.680 is put in our liquid electrolyte 15:06.680 --> 15:07.900 at the very end of the process, 15:07.900 --> 15:09.970 seal it up, and run some initial cycles 15:09.970 --> 15:11.210 to form the battery, and then you have 15:11.210 --> 15:13.920 a very high-performance and safe battery technology. 15:13.920 --> 15:15.191 - [Man 1] So your TRL assessment, 15:15.191 --> 15:17.440 is that a self assessment, or was 15:17.440 --> 15:19.180 that independently verified? 15:19.180 --> 15:20.060 - [Lee] That's a self assessment 15:20.060 --> 15:22.543 based on what we've done with the drones and so forth. 15:24.530 --> 15:26.532 And so based on this technology, 15:26.532 --> 15:30.163 already 80% more energy that's much safer, 15:30.163 --> 15:32.210 and, as I mentioned, drop in solution 15:32.210 --> 15:33.978 with lithium-ion manufacturing. 15:33.978 --> 15:35.070 That's really the key, because there 15:35.070 --> 15:36.450 are so many battery technologies out there, 15:36.450 --> 15:38.325 certainly in academia and also in industry 15:38.325 --> 15:40.285 where people are making really big promises, 15:40.285 --> 15:41.500 they look interesting in the lab, 15:41.500 --> 15:42.820 but they cannot seal it up, or they 15:42.820 --> 15:45.740 need $200,000,00, $100,000,000 15:45.740 --> 15:47.190 to build out their own big factory 15:47.190 --> 15:50.440 and lines and custom manufacturing and processing. 15:50.440 --> 15:51.853 We can avoid all of this by leveraging 15:51.853 --> 15:54.129 existing equipment, and that's allowed us 15:54.129 --> 15:57.850 to be extremely efficient, both with 15:57.850 --> 16:00.090 our time and with our capitol. 16:00.090 --> 16:01.835 So in our lab, we already have an 16:01.835 --> 16:03.798 incredible amount of testing capability 16:03.798 --> 16:05.260 for high frequent electrolyte 16:05.260 --> 16:06.678 in development and testing, it's 16:06.678 --> 16:10.010 rapid data collection, we probably test 16:10.010 --> 16:12.370 about 100 cells or more per week, 16:12.370 --> 16:14.410 which is as much as companies that 16:14.410 --> 16:16.890 are 10 or 20 times our size are testing these days, 16:16.890 --> 16:18.990 because of that contract manufacturing approach. 16:18.990 --> 16:20.080 And then we are developing now, 16:20.080 --> 16:21.390 machine learning back end tech, 16:21.390 --> 16:23.120 we analyze all that data that we're collecting 16:23.120 --> 16:24.690 to extract all of the insights 16:24.690 --> 16:27.720 to further expedite this rapid iteration of development. 16:27.720 --> 16:28.847 If you compare it to a couple other companies 16:28.847 --> 16:30.700 in the Bay area that are working 16:30.700 --> 16:32.620 on next gen battery technologies, 16:32.620 --> 16:33.950 you can see they graze on the order 16:33.950 --> 16:36.500 of 120 to $150,000,000, but they're 16:36.500 --> 16:38.190 still making tiny RND cells that 16:38.190 --> 16:39.722 are not that meaningful commercially. 16:39.722 --> 16:42.180 Not that many of them, not very reliable, 16:42.180 --> 16:45.190 and they aren't able to even make large commercial cells 16:45.190 --> 16:47.191 like we've already made at Cuberg 16:47.191 --> 16:49.799 in a fraction of the time in one 20th or 50th 16:49.799 --> 16:51.500 of the money that they have spent. 16:51.500 --> 16:53.270 So extremely efficient because we have 16:53.270 --> 16:54.537 this pure electrolyte approach, 16:54.537 --> 16:56.120 and it's very, very simple to integrate 16:56.120 --> 16:57.620 and everything else is basically 16:57.620 --> 17:00.120 already taken care of by the lithium-ion industry. 17:01.500 --> 17:03.430 This is something from the US Army 17:03.430 --> 17:05.060 that might also be interesting. 17:05.060 --> 17:07.520 It's an assessment of core flammability 17:07.520 --> 17:10.730 properties of electrolytes and it's devised by the US Army. 17:10.730 --> 17:12.150 We searched that and it's called 17:12.150 --> 17:14.278 self extinguishing time, and so you take 17:14.278 --> 17:16.332 essentially the core separator 17:16.332 --> 17:18.710 with a known amount of electrolyte 17:18.710 --> 17:21.190 and you try to light it on fire and see what happens. 17:21.190 --> 17:22.968 And so if you look at this video here, 17:22.968 --> 17:25.890 this is us lighting a lithium-ion electrolyte on fire, 17:25.890 --> 17:28.533 so extremely flammable, it burned for quite a long time. 17:28.533 --> 17:30.430 And if you calculate the amount of time 17:30.430 --> 17:32.410 per gram of electrolytes, then you 17:32.410 --> 17:34.459 get self extinguishing time, so anything 17:34.459 --> 17:37.090 above 20 is considered flammable, 17:37.090 --> 17:40.330 and lithium-ion is at 92, so extremely flammable, 17:40.330 --> 17:41.170 and that's what these are a lot 17:41.170 --> 17:43.270 of concerns with lithium ion. 17:43.270 --> 17:44.560 We've gone through three generations 17:44.560 --> 17:46.370 of our electrolytes, broadly speaking, 17:46.370 --> 17:48.160 in the past couple years, and you can 17:48.160 --> 17:50.470 see all of them easily classify as non-flammable. 17:50.470 --> 17:52.570 The threshold of six, our first generation 17:53.442 --> 17:55.560 is 2.4, second gen is 1.6, and version three 17:55.560 --> 17:57.420 now that we are now validating 17:57.420 --> 17:59.420 and implementing is truly not flammable. 18:00.430 --> 18:02.352 You cannot ignite it at all, you 18:02.352 --> 18:03.190 cannot combust it, it's extremely stable. 18:03.190 --> 18:05.830 So not a flammable electrolyte ultimately 18:05.830 --> 18:07.850 is the core for what makes the system safe, 18:07.850 --> 18:09.220 because fundamentally, everything else 18:09.220 --> 18:11.649 in there is very high energy, you're 18:11.649 --> 18:12.880 packing a huge amount of energy into a small space, 18:12.880 --> 18:13.910 and to really make that safe, 18:13.910 --> 18:16.315 you need an electrolyte that's fundamentally 18:16.315 --> 18:17.148 very, very stable so that you don't 18:17.148 --> 18:19.100 catalyze any sort of runaway reactions 18:19.100 --> 18:21.090 or flammability concerns. 18:21.090 --> 18:24.570 So this is a video I showed last year, 18:24.570 --> 18:28.600 let's play it again briefly, or maybe not. 18:28.600 --> 18:31.430 But basically we've done nail puncture tests 18:31.430 --> 18:34.590 of our cells, very very safe compared 18:34.590 --> 18:35.810 to lithium-ion, but we've also done 18:35.810 --> 18:37.710 a lot of other standard tests. 18:37.710 --> 18:40.130 Newell 1642 is a standard certification 18:40.130 --> 18:42.712 for consumer batteries, and you do 18:42.712 --> 18:45.900 a bunch of abuse testing over temperature, 18:45.900 --> 18:49.230 short circuit, over charge, crushed, 18:49.230 --> 18:52.010 and so forth, and mission over temp. 18:52.010 --> 18:53.730 And so on all of these metrics 18:53.730 --> 18:56.580 compared to lithium ion cells, substantially safer. 18:56.580 --> 18:57.930 And so we anticipate that this will 18:57.930 --> 19:00.074 also fairly easily meet military 19:00.074 --> 19:02.533 standards for battery safety. 19:04.180 --> 19:06.400 Now, well here's the video, so, you 19:06.400 --> 19:08.960 can see it's much, much better. 19:08.960 --> 19:11.175 Lithium-ion is pretty violent if you put a nail through it, 19:11.175 --> 19:14.193 so not the ideal chemistry. 19:16.487 --> 19:18.870 Also in the past few months, we've made 19:18.870 --> 19:21.880 very exciting progress so let's go over what I presented. 19:21.880 --> 19:23.522 We still had relatively small lab cells, 19:23.522 --> 19:26.670 about 0.6 amp hours that we're 19:26.670 --> 19:28.320 cycling and excited about, but since then, 19:28.320 --> 19:30.100 we've made a tremendous leap, scaled 19:30.100 --> 19:31.960 up about eight ex in terms of capacity, 19:31.960 --> 19:34.650 and we're now at about over four amp 19:34.650 --> 19:35.944 hours in capacity, and so that large 19:35.944 --> 19:38.500 cell is what allows us to prove out the energy, 19:38.500 --> 19:40.400 the power and the cycle life. 19:40.400 --> 19:42.030 And so in that commercial format, 19:42.030 --> 19:43.981 we're actually cycling it almost at 200 times 19:43.981 --> 19:46.170 before it reaches end of life, 19:46.170 --> 19:48.000 and this is still with version two 19:48.000 --> 19:50.130 of our electrolyte, and already quite 19:50.130 --> 19:52.360 close to US Army standards for soldier batteries, 19:52.360 --> 19:55.880 which is typically 224 cycles, the typical specification. 19:55.880 --> 19:56.940 And with version three we are 19:56.940 --> 19:58.670 anticipating about a 40% increase 19:58.670 --> 20:00.890 based on early lab results, so we 20:00.890 --> 20:01.940 should already be there in terms 20:01.940 --> 20:03.950 of cycle life as well, which is 20:03.950 --> 20:05.118 one of the concerns the Army has had with our technology. 20:05.118 --> 20:06.753 So already enough for soldier power applications, 20:06.753 --> 20:10.383 and validated with real cell. 20:11.580 --> 20:13.470 Leveraging lithium-ion ecosystems, 20:13.470 --> 20:17.200 so this is one example of pilots productions, 20:17.200 --> 20:18.560 but none of this belongs to us. 20:18.560 --> 20:20.050 This is all contract manufactured, 20:20.050 --> 20:22.053 it's a typical cap of coating processes, 20:22.053 --> 20:24.547 rolled roll processing for separators, 20:24.547 --> 20:26.540 for lithium metal, for cathodes. 20:26.540 --> 20:28.751 It all comes together, cylindrical cells 20:28.751 --> 20:30.600 or these days we more commonly would make 20:30.600 --> 20:32.526 pouch cells where they're stacked, 20:32.526 --> 20:34.019 and a lot of of the industry is 20:34.019 --> 20:35.650 moving towards pouch cells, that's 20:35.650 --> 20:36.760 where we believe that the future 20:36.760 --> 20:38.750 is for battery technology, and confirm 20:38.750 --> 20:40.610 all verbal battery the Army is developing 20:40.610 --> 20:41.670 is also based on pouch cells, 20:41.670 --> 20:43.120 so we can very easily integrate 20:43.120 --> 20:44.620 into that kind of application. 20:45.760 --> 20:48.180 And so the business model for Cuberg 20:48.180 --> 20:51.153 is ultimately contract manufacturing. 20:53.050 --> 20:55.044 We're getting close to the point 20:55.044 --> 20:55.877 where something's gonna happen in the video 20:55.877 --> 20:57.750 in the next two minutes, so we'll just 20:57.750 --> 21:01.160 keep an eye on that, but our business model 21:01.160 --> 21:02.685 is really extremely capital efficient. 21:02.685 --> 21:05.310 And so we buy industrial materials 21:05.310 --> 21:07.180 from top suppliers around the world, 21:07.180 --> 21:08.453 all of the materials and components we use are 21:08.453 --> 21:11.558 already manufactured at a very large scale 21:11.558 --> 21:13.460 at a reasonable cost, so there's no scaled cost, 21:13.460 --> 21:15.750 we don't have to build large reactors, 21:15.750 --> 21:17.880 we don't have to synthesize our own chemicals, 21:17.880 --> 21:20.242 it's all readily available in the supply chain. 21:20.242 --> 21:21.990 We do the RND in design which is 21:21.990 --> 21:23.977 really our core competency and what we excel at. 21:23.977 --> 21:27.700 We outsource the fabrication of dry cells, 21:27.700 --> 21:28.980 and what's so interesting about this 21:28.980 --> 21:30.730 is all the materials are processed 21:30.730 --> 21:32.780 and made externally in a existing 21:32.780 --> 21:34.360 lithium-ion facility, and it's very, very 21:34.360 --> 21:36.778 high through put, they can basically 21:36.778 --> 21:37.980 scale to any kind of scale that we can imagine, 21:37.980 --> 21:39.750 because they have huge factories making 21:39.750 --> 21:41.320 millions of cells per year, or tens 21:41.320 --> 21:42.600 of millions of cells per year. 21:42.600 --> 21:44.070 So a very easy pathway to scale 21:44.070 --> 21:45.635 but minimal capital investment from us, 21:45.635 --> 21:47.911 and very, very high quality as well at the end of it. 21:47.911 --> 21:50.095 So we're receiving these extremely high quality 21:50.095 --> 21:52.727 commercial cells from vendors, but 21:52.727 --> 21:55.350 the key difference is they do not 21:55.350 --> 21:56.775 have any electrolyte, so they're dry cells, 21:56.775 --> 21:59.270 and this is critical because it allows 21:59.270 --> 22:02.579 us to very cleanly separate the proprietary knowledge 22:02.579 --> 22:04.620 and the IP in the know how, and so 22:04.620 --> 22:05.890 all of the stuff that we outsource 22:05.890 --> 22:07.827 is commodity components, commodity design, 22:07.827 --> 22:10.230 and we can work with any manufacturer in the world, 22:10.230 --> 22:12.212 there's really nothing that you can steal there. 22:12.212 --> 22:14.614 And then they take it to us, we take 22:14.614 --> 22:16.846 the dry cells, and then we put in our secret sauce, 22:16.846 --> 22:19.680 and that secret sauce, the electrolyte, 22:19.680 --> 22:21.310 then unlocks the full performance 22:21.310 --> 22:23.650 in safety characteristics of that cell. 22:23.650 --> 22:25.999 But that whole process only takes us two minutes in our lab, 22:25.999 --> 22:28.530 extremely quick, and then after that, 22:28.530 --> 22:31.100 you just seal it up and put it on formation 22:31.100 --> 22:32.080 cycling for a couple days, and then 22:32.080 --> 22:34.360 you have a cell that's ready to go commercially. 22:34.360 --> 22:36.955 So, extremely efficient, and then after that, 22:36.955 --> 22:39.561 then our model is to directly sell these cells 22:39.561 --> 22:43.253 to early customers in the defense and aerospace industries, 22:43.253 --> 22:45.960 or, this is really highly impactful. 22:45.960 --> 22:48.010 In the long-term, our vision is 22:48.010 --> 22:48.843 that ultimately this will become 22:48.843 --> 22:51.600 a licensing model for large scale applications 22:51.600 --> 22:54.820 like consumer electronics, automotive for example. 22:54.820 --> 22:56.290 We're not gonna have the capital to really 22:56.290 --> 22:59.210 build this out, and so that's when 22:59.210 --> 23:00.750 licensing or perhaps acquisition 23:00.750 --> 23:02.550 by a large battery manufacturer, 23:02.550 --> 23:03.960 will make the most sense to really fully 23:03.960 --> 23:05.750 commercialize this technology. 23:05.750 --> 23:07.072 So you can see the lithium ion 23:07.072 --> 23:10.448 drone has landed, 15 minutes, 56 seconds 23:10.448 --> 23:12.209 for this little drone that we purchased off shelf, 23:12.209 --> 23:14.788 and so the Cuberg cell battery 23:14.788 --> 23:18.080 and the drone power baited battery's gonna keep flying. 23:18.080 --> 23:19.760 So we're just gonna keep waiting 23:19.760 --> 23:22.560 and see how long that flies, but it's pretty impressive. 23:24.430 --> 23:27.403 So ultimately in terms of commercialization and vision, 23:27.403 --> 23:30.740 we already have this model worked out. 23:30.740 --> 23:31.713 We have contract manufacturers that 23:31.713 --> 23:33.660 have already made high quality cells, 23:33.660 --> 23:36.810 so the pipeline is ready. 23:36.810 --> 23:39.010 We have all the facilities in house, 23:39.010 --> 23:40.510 in our labs in the bay area, to kind 23:40.510 --> 23:42.919 of fill with electrolyte and a new formation cycling, 23:42.919 --> 23:45.260 and then we're ready to sell these to customers. 23:45.260 --> 23:48.170 And so in terms of capacity, right now 23:48.170 --> 23:50.310 this quarter, we're anticipating scaling 23:50.310 --> 23:53.790 up very substantially to at least 500 cells 23:53.790 --> 23:55.045 in the next quarter, and 500 is a 23:55.045 --> 23:56.960 sort of magical number because each 23:56.960 --> 23:59.630 customer is typically purchasing samples 23:59.630 --> 24:01.410 from us right now, maybe 10 to 20 cells 24:01.410 --> 24:03.650 for early validation, and so that 500 cells 24:03.650 --> 24:05.070 allows us to fulfill sample requests 24:05.070 --> 24:07.371 from all of these top defense in aerospace customers 24:07.371 --> 24:10.230 that have already put in purchase orders for samples. 24:10.230 --> 24:12.500 And then next quarter to three, 24:12.500 --> 24:15.863 we're then wrapping up to at least two to 3,000 cells, 24:15.863 --> 24:20.050 two, three, and that is early pilot production levels 24:20.050 --> 24:22.030 for more meaningful demonstrations 24:22.030 --> 24:23.610 in large pack systems and so forth, 24:23.610 --> 24:25.260 and then by Q4 we're gonna be at 24:25.260 --> 24:27.414 more than 10,000 cells per quarter. 24:27.414 --> 24:30.326 And we already have all of the equipment 24:30.326 --> 24:32.860 and capability to really wrap through 24:32.860 --> 24:35.403 the end of 2019 just in our current lab, 24:36.420 --> 24:37.420 and it's kind of incredible to think about, 24:37.420 --> 24:39.544 because we only have a modest lab space, 24:39.544 --> 24:42.399 nothing that's really automated, 24:42.399 --> 24:43.510 but because it's such an efficient process, 24:43.510 --> 24:46.650 we can make 10,000 cells a quarter 24:46.650 --> 24:47.840 in our existing lab, and this is 24:47.840 --> 24:49.650 already pilot production that's a higher 24:49.650 --> 24:51.540 level than any next generation 24:51.540 --> 24:54.060 a battery technology company has achieved historically. 24:54.060 --> 24:55.550 And that's just in 2019, and by the 24:55.550 --> 24:57.469 end of 2019, we'll be building out 24:57.469 --> 24:59.684 a more dedicated facility to do 24:59.684 --> 25:01.812 electrolyte filling and formation 25:01.812 --> 25:03.880 into a more automated process, 25:03.880 --> 25:05.440 and then that will take us to meaningful 25:05.440 --> 25:08.890 production volumes by early 2020, 25:08.890 --> 25:10.760 tens of thousands of cells per quarter. 25:10.760 --> 25:13.860 So a very smooth wrap up plan, and really, 25:13.860 --> 25:15.793 there's no technology risk, this has 25:15.793 --> 25:17.750 all already been validated, it's just 25:17.750 --> 25:18.880 a matter of building up equipment, 25:18.880 --> 25:20.300 it all already exists as well, 25:20.300 --> 25:22.120 you can just purchase off the shelf, 25:22.120 --> 25:24.140 and then you can just scale this up as much as you need. 25:24.140 --> 25:27.000 And so for a typical Army application, for example, 25:27.000 --> 25:29.286 by 2020, we'll be able to supply production 25:29.286 --> 25:32.050 volumes of cells for those applications, 25:32.050 --> 25:33.520 and the other really attractive thing is 25:33.520 --> 25:35.490 because of our model, these cells 25:35.490 --> 25:38.100 are of US origin, they're US manufactured, 25:38.100 --> 25:40.090 and so that will fit into any kind 25:40.090 --> 25:41.654 of defense application that you need, 25:41.654 --> 25:44.950 and also gonna be highly cost competitive, 25:44.950 --> 25:47.899 because we are outsourcing all the commodity components, 25:47.899 --> 25:51.440 but then we're doing the core technology 25:51.440 --> 25:52.950 and finishing the cells and housed 25:52.950 --> 25:54.660 in the US in a very efficient way. 25:54.660 --> 25:57.000 So the US manufacturer, which can 25:57.000 --> 25:58.370 allow us to drop this very easily 25:58.370 --> 25:59.923 into a variety of applications. 26:02.190 --> 26:04.972 So the drone is still flying, I am 26:04.972 --> 26:06.840 coming to the end of my presentation, 26:06.840 --> 26:08.170 and suspect it'll still be flying, 26:08.170 --> 26:11.500 but I am gonna show you now a shortened 26:11.500 --> 26:13.760 version of this video to get you guys pumped up, 26:13.760 --> 26:15.608 and then we're gonna do the live demo of our drone. 26:15.608 --> 26:18.300 So this is the shortened version, 26:18.300 --> 26:19.700 which you'll see right here. 26:21.060 --> 26:22.891 So this is the world's first vertical takeoff drone 26:22.891 --> 26:25.623 flown with a safe lithium metal battery. 26:32.370 --> 26:35.120 And so you can see again, same video, 26:35.120 --> 26:38.210 but this is gonna be sped up, and so 26:38.210 --> 26:40.299 sped up 60 x, so you can see the minutes 26:40.299 --> 26:42.883 on the bottom ticking away, ticking away. 26:42.883 --> 26:45.030 Kinda looks like an angry bee, 26:45.030 --> 26:47.120 because flying outdoors, there's a bunch of wind, 26:47.120 --> 26:50.270 but Roger, our experienced drone pilot, 26:50.270 --> 26:53.310 has been able to keep it under control. 26:53.310 --> 26:55.260 It's much calmer indoors, but in 16 26:55.260 --> 26:57.690 minutes the thing falls down, end of life, 26:57.690 --> 27:01.572 and ours keeps going, 17, 18, 19, 20, 27:01.572 --> 27:06.572 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 minutes until it lands. 27:09.103 --> 27:13.530 And so 70% increase in flight time 27:13.530 --> 27:17.336 even with an early engineering prototype of our technology. 27:17.336 --> 27:19.720 We anticipate once it goes into commercialization 27:19.720 --> 27:21.075 with a more efficient design, it'll 27:21.075 --> 27:23.640 be 90 to 100% increase in flight time 27:23.640 --> 27:25.153 compared to lithium-ion, so this is 27:25.153 --> 27:28.020 a truly generational improvement in battery tech, 27:28.020 --> 27:31.413 and disruptive innovation in drone flight. 27:32.310 --> 27:35.720 So Roger is setting up now our drone. 27:35.720 --> 27:37.130 So this is the final part of our 27:37.130 --> 27:38.360 presentation and demonstration, 27:38.360 --> 27:40.400 so if you guys want, feel free 27:40.400 --> 27:42.067 to stand up, come take a look. 27:42.067 --> 27:45.393 Before we start flying, I'll just show you what's going on. 27:49.438 --> 27:50.860 And the rest of the audience, if you're interested, 27:50.860 --> 27:53.000 feel free to stand up, but this drone 27:53.000 --> 27:55.330 is just a commercial drone purchased from DJI, 27:55.330 --> 27:57.161 one of the top drone manufacturers in the world, 27:57.161 --> 27:59.001 and it's more of a hobbyist kit. 27:59.001 --> 28:00.380 So it's designed to actually be able 28:00.380 --> 28:02.530 to adapt, but in your own battery packs, 28:02.530 --> 28:04.860 program it yourself, so pretty easy to integrate. 28:04.860 --> 28:06.070 And then all this is is we've 28:06.070 --> 28:08.670 put in our battery pack on the top there, 28:08.670 --> 28:10.690 the one that you took a look at earlier, 28:10.690 --> 28:14.029 and then with a controller and basically this thing works, 28:14.029 --> 28:16.390 and so we have the power to do takeoff 28:16.390 --> 28:18.040 which is actually a very, very high 28:18.040 --> 28:20.470 takeoff power, that's the most stressful part of the flight, 28:20.470 --> 28:22.390 and then once it takes off, when it hovers, 28:22.390 --> 28:25.744 then it can fly for about almost 30 minutes 28:25.744 --> 28:28.441 with this early prototype, so I 28:28.441 --> 28:30.183 think we're ready to go ahead. 28:38.900 --> 28:41.670 Alright, so this is the world's first 28:41.670 --> 28:44.233 public demonstration of a vertical takeoff flight 28:44.233 --> 28:46.930 powered by a lithium metal battery. 28:46.930 --> 28:50.280 So probably the biggest commercialization 28:50.280 --> 28:52.417 milestone we've reached at Cuberg thus far, 28:52.417 --> 28:54.065 and we were able to pull this together 28:54.065 --> 28:56.770 in only five months time from October 28:56.770 --> 28:58.850 when we did our phase three extend search. 28:58.850 --> 29:01.082 So incredible progress, Steven and Roger 29:01.082 --> 29:04.350 are the key engineers on this project, 29:04.350 --> 29:05.300 and just the two of them have been 29:05.300 --> 29:07.630 able to put this together in a matter of months. 29:07.630 --> 29:11.300 So we're very proud of what we've done, 29:11.300 --> 29:12.610 and we're very excited to work 29:12.610 --> 29:15.360 with the Army on future applications. 29:15.360 --> 29:18.064 So Roger will just let this hover here, 29:18.064 --> 29:21.850 we just don't want it to get caught in the net, 29:21.850 --> 29:25.103 because that would be great, the battery 29:25.103 --> 29:29.180 has been perfectly reliable in all of the flights, 29:29.180 --> 29:31.220 but the drone is slightly touchy 29:31.220 --> 29:33.112 in terms of the controls and so forth. 29:33.112 --> 29:34.800 It's actually flying in a contained space, 29:34.800 --> 29:38.010 but yeah, pretty good indoors, so happy to take questions, 29:38.010 --> 29:39.512 and we'll just keep this thing flying for 29:39.512 --> 29:42.690 however long you guys want, until you guys get bored. 29:42.690 --> 29:44.290 We're happy to take questions. 29:44.290 --> 29:46.160 - [Man 1] What about recharge time? 29:46.160 --> 29:47.504 - [Lee] Yeah, so recharge time right now, 29:47.504 --> 29:50.030 typically what we do in the lab is 29:50.030 --> 29:52.040 a three hour recharge, and what 29:52.040 --> 29:54.375 the Army specifies is typically a five hour recharge 29:54.375 --> 29:56.770 for their soldier battery 29:56.770 --> 29:58.150 according to the normal specifications, 29:58.150 --> 30:00.350 so we're in the same range already. 30:00.350 --> 30:02.340 - [Man 2] So you've mentioned a couple times, 30:02.340 --> 30:05.640 explained hybrid electric and air taxis 30:05.640 --> 30:06.934 in the bigger system, so do you envision 30:06.934 --> 30:11.930 getting up to the hundreds of kilowatts type area? 30:11.930 --> 30:13.170 - [Lee] Absolutely, so we're working 30:13.170 --> 30:14.450 with a number of companies both 30:14.450 --> 30:16.000 in the air taxi area and also 30:16.000 --> 30:17.810 in the automotive space, so some of 30:17.810 --> 30:19.220 the top companies around the world, 30:19.220 --> 30:20.920 and they're already asking us, 30:20.920 --> 30:23.250 when can we get 5,000 of these cells 30:23.250 --> 30:25.100 to make 100 kilowatt hour pack 30:25.100 --> 30:27.930 for an early concept vehicle, like 30:27.930 --> 30:30.033 a next gen high-performance sports car that's electric, 30:30.033 --> 30:32.560 so a couple companies were working on this, 30:32.560 --> 30:34.390 you can guess what it might be, 30:34.390 --> 30:36.160 but that's one of our potential customers, 30:36.160 --> 30:37.685 and then some of these other air taxi 30:37.685 --> 30:39.240 applications where they also wanna buy 30:39.240 --> 30:41.860 several thousand cells by Q3 to test those cells. 30:41.860 --> 30:43.264 - [Man 3] So what about cycle life? 30:43.264 --> 30:47.110 So with recharge and having to recharge 30:47.110 --> 30:49.365 lithium-ion formation, dendrites, 30:49.365 --> 30:54.365 and short-circuiting eventually of the battery. 30:54.760 --> 30:57.665 Have you done extended recharge cycles 30:57.665 --> 31:01.370 to look at actual lifetime of the battery? 31:01.370 --> 31:02.587 - Yeah, so right now with our version three 31:02.587 --> 31:04.370 electrolyte, we're predicting at about 31:04.370 --> 31:07.740 250 to 300 cycles based on what we've shown earlier. 31:07.740 --> 31:09.920 That's already good enough for most 31:09.920 --> 31:11.290 early defense applications, and 31:11.290 --> 31:12.980 also for all these drone applications. 31:12.980 --> 31:14.910 A typical commercial DJI battery 31:14.910 --> 31:16.550 is warranted for about 100 cycles 31:16.550 --> 31:19.490 because of the use case, so already plenty 31:19.490 --> 31:21.230 for all the early commercial markets, 31:21.230 --> 31:23.417 but as we go large scale for automotive, 31:23.417 --> 31:25.880 for air taxis for example, cycle life 31:25.880 --> 31:28.513 becomes especially stringent, along with the first price, 31:28.513 --> 31:30.280 this is a large scale application. 31:30.280 --> 31:32.780 So those are longer term targets for us, 31:32.780 --> 31:34.450 maybe in the next three plus years we 31:34.450 --> 31:36.150 anticipate getting into those markets, 31:36.150 --> 31:37.890 but the improvements in our electrolyte 31:37.890 --> 31:40.190 have really been very substantial, 31:40.190 --> 31:42.710 so we probably started out a year 31:42.710 --> 31:44.289 and a half ago with a cell that cycled 31:44.289 --> 31:46.611 at about 30 cycles, and that's what 31:46.611 --> 31:49.430 commercially, most people were doing these days. 31:49.430 --> 31:50.723 And we were to improve that, so almost 250 cycles 31:50.723 --> 31:53.590 in a year and a half, and we still 31:53.590 --> 31:55.750 have a lot of head room in terms of work and growth. 31:55.750 --> 31:57.882 So we anticipate it easily being to 500 cycles, 31:57.882 --> 32:00.320 which opens up most consumer applications 32:00.320 --> 32:01.930 including things like stock market phones 32:01.930 --> 32:05.530 and computers and so forth in about one year time frame, 32:05.530 --> 32:08.473 and about 1,000 cycles is maybe two to three years out. 32:10.870 --> 32:15.870 - Are there any environmental conditions that impact? 32:16.420 --> 32:19.015 Minus 40 to plus 140 Fahrenheit 32:19.015 --> 32:24.015 is typical Army field temperature range. 32:24.190 --> 32:26.877 - Yes, exactly, so on the low temperature side, 32:26.877 --> 32:31.580 we are about similar to sort of commercial 32:31.580 --> 32:33.570 off the shelf lithium ion batteries. 32:33.570 --> 32:34.722 The ones that the Army uses are 32:34.722 --> 32:37.492 an especially tailored for ultra low temperature, 32:37.492 --> 32:39.170 and so we're doing a little bit more 32:39.170 --> 32:40.300 developmental work to get to that 32:40.300 --> 32:41.624 ultra low temperature, but we're getting 32:41.624 --> 32:43.443 pretty close on that end. 32:43.443 --> 32:45.052 High temperature's actually really great 32:45.052 --> 32:46.870 because of the thermal stability, 32:46.870 --> 32:48.220 so we can go to much, much higher 32:48.220 --> 32:49.770 temperatures than it typically can 32:49.770 --> 32:50.780 be done with lithium-ion with 32:50.780 --> 32:52.560 no degradation of the chemistry. 32:52.560 --> 32:54.035 And so another example where this is great 32:54.035 --> 32:57.700 is especially for large high power vehicles, 32:57.700 --> 32:59.690 something like, say, an air taxi, 32:59.690 --> 33:01.162 where the huge pack or a high-performance car, 33:01.162 --> 33:03.550 it's really cooling the battery that 33:03.550 --> 33:06.223 is the key challenge for a manufacturer, 33:06.223 --> 33:08.040 because you have so much heat that's built up, 33:08.040 --> 33:09.900 so you need these complex liquid cooling systems, 33:09.900 --> 33:12.110 you need all this overhead to do that, 33:12.110 --> 33:15.820 and we've talked to these automotive manufacturers, 33:15.820 --> 33:17.480 and they're extremely excited about heat stability, 33:17.480 --> 33:19.600 because if you can operate comfortably 33:19.600 --> 33:22.367 at 140 Fahrenheit with no degradation, 33:22.367 --> 33:24.412 that means you can get away with a past 33:24.412 --> 33:26.738 cooling system on a car, which is much lighter, 33:26.738 --> 33:28.890 much cheaper, and really makes the whole vehicle 33:28.890 --> 33:30.633 much more attractive, especially for 33:30.633 --> 33:32.780 these very intensive applications, 33:32.780 --> 33:35.579 high temperatures are really the key variable. 33:35.579 --> 33:39.620 - So how does this compare to silicon anode technology? 33:39.620 --> 33:41.390 - Yep, so lithium anode is probably 33:41.390 --> 33:44.550 a more near term technology, it's also relatively 33:44.550 --> 33:46.811 easy to integrate, but that being said, 33:46.811 --> 33:48.060 a lot of the companies have already 33:48.060 --> 33:49.520 been around 10 years and still 33:49.520 --> 33:50.960 don't have a commercial product. 33:50.960 --> 33:52.840 We anticipate silicon coming online, 33:52.840 --> 33:55.820 especially for things like smartphones 33:55.820 --> 33:56.960 and so forth where it's all about 33:56.960 --> 33:59.410 the size of the battery, not so much the weight, 33:59.410 --> 34:01.246 and so that's where lithium really shines. 34:01.246 --> 34:03.013 And so for those applications, the next look in 34:03.013 --> 34:05.154 will be coming more and more online in the next couple years 34:05.154 --> 34:07.240 but at the same time, our chemistry 34:07.240 --> 34:09.476 is delivering much more energy than silicon can deliver, 34:09.476 --> 34:11.315 especially on a weight basis, so it's really 34:11.315 --> 34:13.881 another generational leap beyond silicon, 34:13.881 --> 34:15.950 and with a lot of other benefits 34:15.950 --> 34:17.900 because of our non flammable chemistry. 34:20.780 --> 34:21.613 - [Woman] I don't know if the question 34:21.613 --> 34:24.550 was asked, I know the question was asked about cycle life, 34:24.550 --> 34:27.320 but what about life cycle, like 34:27.320 --> 34:28.710 sitting on the shelf, shelf life? 34:28.710 --> 34:30.186 - Sure, sure, so the chemistry 34:30.186 --> 34:32.640 is also quite stable in terms of shelf life, 34:32.640 --> 34:35.890 and so that's probably because typically 34:35.890 --> 34:37.040 when you have limited shelf life, 34:37.040 --> 34:39.230 the problem is that electrolyte, 34:39.230 --> 34:40.510 that flammable react electrolyte 34:40.510 --> 34:42.350 reacts with components in your cell, 34:42.350 --> 34:44.520 and then it forms basically these insulating layers, 34:44.520 --> 34:47.450 and the battery starts to fade in performance and power. 34:47.450 --> 34:49.090 And so with our chemistry, because 34:49.090 --> 34:51.095 the electrolyte is so much more chemically stable, 34:51.095 --> 34:53.391 both in terms of high voltage and low voltage performance, 34:53.391 --> 34:56.190 it means that shelf life is actually very, very good. 34:56.190 --> 34:58.140 So almost no self discharge and you can 34:58.140 --> 35:01.393 store it for many, many years at a time, it's quite good. 35:11.626 --> 35:12.645 - So you mentioned you're already interacting 35:12.645 --> 35:17.113 with CERDEC on the conformable soldier portable batteries, 35:17.113 --> 35:20.610 what's been their perspective on 35:20.610 --> 35:22.500 the path forward with the batteries? 35:22.500 --> 35:23.810 - [Lee] Yeah, so CERDEC has historically 35:23.810 --> 35:26.930 worked with a number of a few battery companies in the space 35:26.930 --> 35:30.420 and so they add a number of horses in the race, so to speak, 35:30.420 --> 35:31.650 and so they're working with those companies. 35:31.650 --> 35:32.830 We've been talking to them in the past 35:32.830 --> 35:34.470 couple years about our technology. 35:34.470 --> 35:37.000 They're, I think, understandably skeptical 35:37.000 --> 35:38.260 of new battery technologies given 35:38.260 --> 35:39.360 how much through the space is sort 35:39.360 --> 35:41.150 of over hyped and so forth, and they've 35:41.150 --> 35:42.200 been waiting for us to get to 35:42.200 --> 35:43.591 a commercial prototype that's pretty interesting 35:43.591 --> 35:45.891 in cycle life and so forth, and I think now we're there. 35:45.891 --> 35:47.631 So we're ready now to start providing samples to them, 35:47.631 --> 35:50.290 and once I think they can test out a sample, 35:50.290 --> 35:53.171 then I think they can get very excited about the next steps. 35:53.171 --> 35:55.321 In terms of raw performance, I think I've mentioned, 35:55.321 --> 35:58.220 cycle life was a concern, but we've 35:58.220 --> 36:00.090 now basically hit their cycle life targets. 36:00.090 --> 36:02.120 Power also was a concern, but we've easily 36:02.120 --> 36:03.670 exceeded all the power targets. 36:03.670 --> 36:05.890 The only thing left, I think, in terms 36:05.890 --> 36:07.450 of very, very low temperature, 36:07.450 --> 36:09.330 we wanna still do a little bit of work. 36:09.330 --> 36:10.960 And we actually set to propose an SBRI proposal 36:10.960 --> 36:13.298 with the US Army with CERDEC targeted 36:13.298 --> 36:15.720 with that low temperature, but hopefully 36:15.720 --> 36:17.949 with a little bit more work with the Army, 36:17.949 --> 36:19.889 we'll figure that out, and then 36:19.889 --> 36:22.800 I think it's really ready to go. 36:22.800 --> 36:25.210 - [Man 3] The tank in automotive research 36:25.210 --> 36:26.460 development engineering center, their 36:26.460 --> 36:27.950 new name ground vehicle development 36:27.950 --> 36:32.730 coming in, I think, from development center, 36:32.730 --> 36:37.730 also does battery applications on vehicle. 36:39.500 --> 36:43.120 Have you had any connections with those guys? 36:43.120 --> 36:45.028 - Not yet, so TARDEC is one I have been wanting to pursue. 36:45.028 --> 36:48.310 A few months ago, we thought it was 36:48.310 --> 36:49.560 still a little far out because 36:49.560 --> 36:51.620 they're looking for literally thousands of cells, 36:51.620 --> 36:53.831 and we're a rookie yet, but I think 36:53.831 --> 36:54.664 now we're getting pretty close to the point where 36:54.664 --> 36:55.920 at least for early concept vehicles, 36:55.920 --> 36:58.260 they could actually do a development project. 36:58.260 --> 36:59.340 So that's an area we wanna 36:59.340 --> 37:01.147 really push things is with TARDEC. 37:05.080 --> 37:08.050 - For ground robotics especially, smaller, 37:08.050 --> 37:11.285 not combat vehicle necessarily. 37:11.285 --> 37:13.990 - Yeah absolutely, for something like ground robotics, 37:13.990 --> 37:17.020 that's basically a lesser version 37:17.020 --> 37:18.470 of a drone in terms of power, 37:19.718 --> 37:20.551 so we already power any kind of ground 37:22.354 --> 37:24.270 robotics pretty comfortably and with- 37:24.270 --> 37:25.187 over there. 37:26.660 --> 37:28.950 - Have you done any ballistics testing? 37:28.950 --> 37:30.790 - We are planning to pretty soon actually. 37:30.790 --> 37:33.918 So actually, next week we're gonna be sending out 37:33.918 --> 37:36.620 14 cells to Boeing, and so they're gonna 37:36.620 --> 37:38.770 be doing their first interest and safety testing, 37:38.770 --> 37:41.540 so they're doing sort of full FAA type testing, 37:41.540 --> 37:44.600 which is much more aggressive than typical safety tests, 37:44.600 --> 37:45.810 and I believe they will also be doing 37:45.810 --> 37:47.254 a ballistic test for some of the more 37:47.254 --> 37:49.990 Air Force related applications that we have, 37:49.990 --> 37:51.863 so yeah, coming soon. 37:53.920 --> 37:55.400 I know it's a very strenuous test, 37:55.400 --> 37:57.410 it's like an armor piercing incendiary 37:57.410 --> 37:58.610 round or something that goes through. 37:58.610 --> 38:01.613 So yeah, we'll be doing that. 38:01.613 --> 38:02.948 - And that's a worst-case scenario. 38:02.948 --> 38:04.370 - Yeah, worst case scenario. 38:04.370 --> 38:07.140 - Are there any environmental hazardous 38:08.690 --> 38:10.800 aspects to your electrolyte? 38:10.800 --> 38:14.410 I mean, the battery technology, and I'm not 38:14.410 --> 38:18.036 an expert, creates a lot of by products 38:18.036 --> 38:20.655 that may not necessarily be great for 38:20.655 --> 38:24.816 the environment, is yours more or less about the same? 38:24.816 --> 38:26.610 - [Lee] So actually, lithium-ion 38:26.610 --> 38:28.507 technologies are actually pretty decent 38:28.507 --> 38:30.410 in terms of sustainability, so they 38:30.410 --> 38:31.660 don't have any heavy metals in them, 38:31.660 --> 38:34.944 they don't have cadmium or lead or anything like that. 38:34.944 --> 38:37.860 The recycling side of the picture 38:37.860 --> 38:39.220 is something that the industry is 38:39.220 --> 38:40.890 seriously invested in now, because now 38:40.890 --> 38:42.590 that electric vehicles are really 38:42.590 --> 38:44.290 becoming commercialized are having 38:44.290 --> 38:46.210 millions of cells potentially in a few years 38:46.210 --> 38:48.250 sitting in the landfill and nobody wants that, 38:48.250 --> 38:50.150 so there's a lot of effort going into 38:50.150 --> 38:51.540 efficient recycling of lithium-ion, 38:51.540 --> 38:53.794 and I think what's really great about our chemistry 38:53.794 --> 38:56.103 is because of the similarity of lithium-ion, 38:56.103 --> 38:58.060 you can actually use the exact same 38:58.060 --> 39:00.350 manufacturer of recycling techniques. 39:00.350 --> 39:02.010 And so obviously we don't have the resources 39:02.010 --> 39:03.800 to invest in recycling development, 39:03.800 --> 39:05.230 but we can enjoy all of them that's 39:05.230 --> 39:06.453 going on in lithium ion. 39:08.640 --> 39:11.140 - Any questions, alright, thank you. 39:12.367 --> 39:13.410 - [Lee] Thank you so much, thank you, alright, thank you. 39:16.995 --> 39:18.417 Thanks for your time, thank you. 39:18.417 --> 39:21.167 - [Man] Thanks. - [Lee] Thank you.