Exclusive From The Electric: In a ‘Come to Jesus’ Moment, SES Bows Out of Sole Manufacturing

In recent months, Qichao Hu, CEO of Massachusetts-based lithium-metal battery developer SES AI, had a “come to Jesus moment,” he said. After 12 years of work, the company’s battery was nearly ready for large-volume production. But Hu was anxious: How would tiny SES, which had never manufactured a commercial battery, compete with the world’s giant battery makers, which had been pumping them out by the millions for years?