#94 – Harrold Rust | Enovix – 3D Battery Cell Chemistry, Silicon Anodes & the Next Generation of EV Batteries

Harrold Rust is the President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Enovix Corporation, a position he has held since the inception of the company in 2007.

Key topics in this conversation include:

  • The unique benefits from utilizing a 3D battery cell architecture
  • How Harrold and the Enovix team decided to take a novel approach to energy storage
  • The keys to unlocking the value of a silicon anode
  • Enovix’s plan to scale up in application size and production volume

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Harrold’s Bio:

Harrold Rust is the President, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Enovix Corporation, a position he has held since the inception of the company in 2007. The founders of Enovix shared the view that the Li-ion battery badly needed a technical overhaul, given that battery advancements were not keeping pace with fast-moving technology sectors such as AI, Electric Vehicles and Virtual Reality.

Under Harrold’s leadership, Enovix has grown from a handful of employees  to more than 200+. He also guided the company through its public offering in 2021.

Harrold is an expert on 3D technology design and cost-effective manufacturing innovation. Prior to Enovix, Harrold was vice president of operations at FormFactor, and spent 17 years in operations management at IBM. Harrold earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering from U.C. Davis and an M.S. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.

About Enovix:

Enovix is a leader in advanced silicon-anode lithium-ion battery development and production. The company’s proprietary 3D cell architecture increases the energy density and a maintains high cycle life compared to competing Li-ion battery designs.

While other battery start-ups have solely focused on developing new battery chemistries and materials, Enovix has completely reimagined the battery design – throwing out the century-old “jellyroll” design to build a more efficient, 3D design that enables the use of a 100-percent active silicon anode.

Enovix’s unique approach addresses significant technical challenges associated with the use of high energy density silicon, challenges which Enovix has gone to great lengths to solve. Silicon has long been heralded as a critical component for the batteries of the future. It’s a more plentiful and sustainable ingredient for powerful batteries than the graphite anode used in conventional Li-ion batteries today. A silicon anode can theoretically store more than twice as many lithium ions as a graphite anode.

Future of Mobility:

The Future of Mobility podcast is focused on the development and implementation of safe, sustainable, and equitable mobility solutions, with a spotlight on the people and technology advancing these fields.

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