Time and time again entrepreneurs and small startups have been the driving force between some of the world’s best and biggest companies. Want proof? Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Google, and even Amazon all started with a small crew working from some garage. In fact, Amazon got started by negotiating and signing its first contracts at a Barnes & Noble. Now another small startup is unfolding in Austria, and it has the solution to building battery packs that not even your boy Elon Musk over at Tesla has been able to come up with.
The company’s name is Kreisel Electric GmbH, it's ran by three brothers, and is headquartered in a three-bay garage in the small Austrian town. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because the company recently got a lot of publicity for the electric conversion it did to the new Porsche Panamera that was able to outshine Tesla’s Model S in some regards. But, that’s not the only thing that’s drawing the company attention. It has a unique and patented process of building lithium-ion battery packs that gives them an edge. By using laser-welding and thermal cooling, the lithium-ion cells are completely preserved throughout the production process.
Because of this, the battery packs that the company makes can push a car farther and faster than anything any automaker, including Tesla, has made to date. So far, the company has been supplying battery packs and electric drivetrains to manufacturers, designs lithium-battery production lines for OE manufacturers, and is creating prototypes for “top-tier carmakers.” While we don’t know much about who Kreisel is selling to, Automotive News reports that the company is fielding as many as 20 inquiries about its products per day, with automakers like BMW, McLaren, and Volkswagen expressing interest as well.
Just recently, Kreisel announced its first major order from VDL, a Netherland-based company that wants as many as 2,000 electric powertrains and battery packs for its fleet of Mercedes-Benz Sprinters. When asked by Automotive News why VDL chose to go with Kreisel, Erik Henneken – VDL’s Business Manager – said, “We have chosen Kreisel because they have developed a very nice battery with some patented characteristics better than Tesla. Kreisel is dynamic startup yet very professional in what they do. They grow rapidly but remain in control.”
The guys over at Kreisel obviously seem to have a pretty good handle on what they are doing and expect to sell as many as 50 million battery cells or more in the next year alone. It just broke ground on a 68,000 square-foot battery factory that will have a capacity of 800 megawatt-hours per year. That factory will be built using money earned from sales, not investments from outside sources.
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This is huge news for the automotive world, and with brands like BMW, McLaren, and Volkswagen showing a clear interest in Kreisel’s product they sky really will be its limit. So far it has kept is growth at a slow but steady crawl and has been taking advantage of low-interest state loans that are aimed primarily at start-ups.
Right now, pricing for battery cells are set at about $140 per kilowatt hours, but Kreisel expects that price to drop down to less than $100 per kilowatt hour as orders grow. For the record, the company has also produced an Electric Yeti 4x4 with a range of 217 miles and a 62-mph sprint of 2.6 seconds and an electric BMW 3 Series Touring with a range of 186 miles and a maximum speed of 111 mph. With that said, keep your eyes open – Kreisel could be the company that helps transition us into the world of all-electric cars.