Sign In or Create an Account.

By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy

Climate Tech

Even Domestic Battery Makers Are Feeling the Pain of Trump’s Tariffs

Bay Area battery maker Lyten sources 80% of its components in the U.S. But its ability to scale still depends on trade.

Lyten headquarters.
Heatmap Illustration/Lyten, Getty Images

China dominates the lithium-ion battery supply chain at nearly every level, from critical minerals processing and refining to cell manufacturing and battery pack assembly. So now that the nation faces a cumulative 54% tariff rate, one might think domestic battery manufacturers in the United States — especially those exploring lithium-ion alternatives — would be celebrating their good fortune.

But the actual picture is markedly more mixed. Take Bay Area-based lithium-sulfur battery producer Lyten. On the one hand, Lyten is particularly well positioned to take advantage of the administration’s focus on building out U.S. supply chains. The company has been around since 2015, and last year snatched up a shuttered 200-megawatt factory from Northvolt after the Swedish battery giant declared bankruptcy.

Lyten aims to use entirely domestic inputs in its battery — a goal it’s been chasing since well before Wednesday’s tariff announcement. It currently sources “well over 80%” of its core components domestically, which is largely possible because its lithium-sulfur battery chemistry doesn’t require critical minerals such as nickel, manganese, cobalt, or graphite, which are mined globally and almost always refined in China. Sulfur, Lyten’s key cathode material, is cheap and abundant in the U.S. The company has ambitious plans to start producing at the old Northvolt facility this year, and is planning a much larger gigafactory in Reno, Nevada for 2027.

But Lyten’s plans for scale will depend on its ability to source affordable construction materials. The company’s timeline hasn’t changed for now, but Trump’s tariffs have introduced a big new question mark into its future operations. “We're not drawing any conclusions quite yet,” Lyten’s Chief Sustainability Officer Keith Norman told me.

As Norman emphasized, Lyten is fundamentally “a hard tech company that needs to build a lot of infrastructure” in order to scale, and tariffs could make that a much more expensive proposition. “The building of physical factories, those materials, the infrastructure to do that, the equipment to do that, a lot of that is coming through international trade,” Norman told me.

“The reality is the energy transition is a manufacturing transition,” Norman told me. “There’s nothing in the energy transition that doesn’t require pretty significant investments in manufacturing and build out.” Therefore, tariffs that hit construction materials and equipment will put emergent domestic energy companies — climate friendly or not — at risk of a slowdown. “And so I think that’s the real question — are there ways to build a managed tariff strategy that creates that opening for accelerating U.S. manufacturing?” Norman questioned.

Import duties of 25% on steel and aluminum went into effect in March, so while these building materials are exempt from the sweeping tariffs announced on Wednesday, those additional costs are already shaking out through the economy. There were also plenty of other building materials that were not exempt, such as cement and drywall. What’s more, according to the consultancy Off-Highway Research, which provided its data to Construction Briefing, the tariffs are expected to add about $4.2 billion to the cost of imported construction equipment — think things like bulldozers, cranes, and dump trucks. Costs for HVAC systems, plumbing, and electrical equipment are also set to rise.

For his part, Norman is more worried about the impact of Trump’s tariffs on the EV market than the stationary energy storage market. The electric vehicle industry is still trying to figure out how to move beyond early adopters to achieve mass market success, he told me, a process that tariffs could seriously hamper as they raise the price of innumerable EV components. Battery storage, on the other hand, is already seeing “gangbusters growth,” as Norman put it. So while tariffs will almost certainly make energy storage systems — largely dominated by lithium-ion batteries — more expensive, “In general, we expect that market to continue to grow incredibly rapidly, partially on the backs of the fact that power demand is growing rapidly,” he told me.

Lyten sees itself as a part of that rapid growth. In theory, lithium-sulfur batteries could achieve a greater energy density than standard lithium-ion, though problems with conductivity and cycle life remain. So while Lyten ultimately wants to produce batteries for use in electric vehicles and energy storage systems that are cheaper and more efficient than the industry standard, earlier applications could include use in drones, satellites, and two- and three-wheelers, which don’t have as high performance requirements.

Norman thinks he’s set up the company to survive tough times, if not precisely a global trade war. “Bringing a new battery chemistry to market, we told ourselves we need to be able to survive two major market downturns,” Norman said. “And so we’ve designed the company, the cap structure, our funding strategy, all around being ready for things like this.”

Editor’s note: This piece has been updated to correct Norman’s title.

Green

You’re out of free articles.

Subscribe today to experience Heatmap’s expert analysis 
of climate change, clean energy, and sustainability.
To continue reading
Create a free account or sign in to unlock more free articles.
or
Please enter an email address
By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy
Economy

Tariffs Just Killed the Last Hope of a U.S. Mining Boom

Mining companies have asked for federal support — but this isn’t what most of them had in mind.

Donald Trump.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

It took Donald Trump just over two months to potentially tank his own American mineral supply chain renaissance.

At the time Trump entered office, it looked like the stars could align for an American mining boom. Mining jobs had finally recovered to pre-COVID levels, thanks in part to demand for the metals required to engineer the transition away from fossil fuels (and, paradoxically, continued demand for coal). A lot of the gains in mining stocks were thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, which offered a huge tax break to mining and metal processing companies and mandated that the consumer EV credit apply only to cars with a certain percentage of domestically-sourced material.

Keep reading...Show less
Blue
Economy

AM Briefing: Panic on Wall Street

On financial shocks, severe flooding in the South, and data centers

The Stock Market Chaos from Trump’s Tariffs Continues
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Streets turned into rivers and at least 30 people were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo after torrential rain • A month’s worth of snow is expected to fall over just two days in Moscow this week • Warm temperatures in Central Florida could break heat records Monday.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Global markets nosedive on Trump tariffs

Financial markets in Asia and Europe plummeted this morning in response to President Trump’s tariffs. U.S. markets are also expected to tumble, with the S&P 500 approaching a 20% decline into a bear market. On the energy front, the fallout hasn’t spared domestic U.S. battery makers who will need to source affordable construction materials if they want to scale their operations. Bay Area-based lithium-sulfur battery producer Lyten told Heatmap’s Katie Brigham that the company needs to build a lot of infrastructure, and tariffs on building materials like steel, aluminum, cement, and drywall will likely make doing so much more expensive. “The building of physical factories, those materials, the infrastructure to do that, the equipment to do that, a lot of that is coming through international trade,” said Lyten’s CEO Keith Norman. And as Heatmap’s Emily Pontecorvo reported, the tariffs could scramble Trump’s plans to expand liquefied natural gas exports, with rising costs threatening to derail contracts for LNG export terminals. “The tariffs (not to mention the uncertainty about how long they’ll last) could also turn off potential buyers from signing long-term contracts with the U.S.,” Pontecorvo said. “They may begin to look elsewhere, or impose retaliatory tariffs, as China has already done.”

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow
Energy

How Tariffs Could Scramble Trump’s LNG Plans

Some producers were already renegotiating contracts due to rising costs. Then came “Liberation Day.”

LNG.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Expanding U.S. liquified natural gas exports has been a key priority for Trump and part of his strategy to “unleash U.S. energy dominance.” But his tariffs could make it harder for projects that are still early in their development to succeed.

After taking office, Trump swiftly reversed the Biden administration’s slow-walking of permits for LNG export terminals and issued key approvals for two big new projects in Louisiana, Calcasieu Pass 2 and Commonwealth LNG. They add to a pipeline of roughly eight other projects that have received key federal approvals but have not yet reached a final investment decision, according to data from the Energy Information Administration.

Keep reading...Show less
Green