How many proposed battery manufacturing plants are operating, under construction or in late planning stages in the US and Europe?  Christoph Lienemann, Managing Director of PEM Motion North America, provided the answer with his first slide at our Perspectives podcast on March 24:  36 in Europe and 20 in North America.  Those are much larger numbers than most people realize.  Is it a sign of a coming overcapacity situation?  Christoph said it depends on how fast the sales in EVs grow.  He can foresee cases where in fact there are not enough battery manufacturing plants to meet demand. Right now there have been 3.2 million EVs sold in Europe compared to 2 million in the US.  The potential exists for the US to be the larger market over time and outpace Europe.  If that happened, overcapacity may not be the problem.  

Why is PEM here in Sacramento?  From its base in Aachen, Germany, PEM has established itself as a creative leader in Europe in engineering of unique mobility products and their production expanding to industrial scale, with an impressive slate of partners.  PEM sees similar opportunities in North America and has chosen Sacramento as its future base to locate its team to provide manufacturing engineering and setting up “ramp-up” factory pilots to work out the details on scaling mobility products to industrial levels. It intends as it has in Europe to focus on niche products in motor sports, personal mobility products like scooters, and delivery vehicles.  It has already signed a partnership agreement with CityFreighter in Irvine, CA, to advance its line of electric delivery vans based on a low skateboard-like chassis.  It also offers similar expertise in setting up industrial scale manufacturing plants for innovative battery systems. 

PEM sees Sacramento as well-situated between growing production centers in the Bay Area, LA and Arizona in area where they can attract talent from our local universities and take advantage of some low-cost space.  In July 2021, PEM entered into a partnership with the California Mobility Center (CMC) supported by Sac State and SMUD to take the first steps of its larger plan.  Mark Doerfer has moved from Germany to here to serve as the COO of PEM Motion USA and the Director of Technology for the CMC.  

According to its website, ”the California Mobility Center (CMC) orchestrates commercially meaningful interactions between future mobility early-stage companies and industry-leading members.”  It has already signed up an impressive list of partners and supporters to create these kinds of meaningful collaborations. 

We recently attended the first Open House showcase of the CMC and saw the products with which they were already involved.  You can find out more about that in our blog here. 

To learn more about PEM Motion and its California Initiative, Christoph’s entire presentation and the Q&A session which followed is below.

After 757 days with 100 virtual events CleanStart returned to in person networking with the CleanTech Meetup at the Hacker Lab on March 24th. It was exciting to see new faces and old ones.  We were joined by Kriztina Palone, Workforce Development Manager at City of Sacramento’s Office of Innovation and Economic Development, who helped in bringing together an exciting new tool in our efforts to connect the community to the Clean Tech Transition, the Cleantech Connect trailer.  

CleanStarts out reach trailer, Cleantech Connect

We started this trailer back in 2020 before, well, everything. Now, with help from the CMC, BlueTech Valley, and the City of Sacramento, we have a trailer to help connect the larger community to the energy transition and inspire new entrepreneurs building the region as a clean tech hub. The trailer is a mobile event station, with Solar, Batteries, PAs, and TVs to help educate people on clean tech and entrepreneurship. Attendees loved the trailer we describe as our own little Nano Grid.

After networking, Kriztina Palone joined CleanStart’s Executive Director Thomas Hall for a bar stool discussion about how the city is leveraging funds and community groups to prepare Sacramentens for future careers. Palone is leading a second round of “Clean + Green Workforce Pathways Discussions” with industry leaders, local companies, and stakeholders to get input on what priorities the city should support. Palone shared how they are bringing together businesses and communities in a shared goal in taking advantage of the energy transition to create jobs and support equitable economic development. It is not just a policy goal for Palone but a personal one, wanting to see the region she grew up in thrive and grow.

A big opportunity discussed was bringing groups together to create a community energy project. Palone highlighted being from Del Paso she would love to see local communities benefit and grow. A community Energy Project could coordinate resources to get larger community and economic returns.  We encourage companies to engage with Palone and the City so we can build these projects. 

If you want to hear more check out the video below, and make sure you subscribe to attend future meetups.