One month ago, a Japanese company announced that it is going to reveal a battery that is going to be 90% cheaper than Lithium-ion. The name of the company is APB Corp. and it is going to build “all-polymer batteries.” Hideaki Horie, 63, founded the company is 2018 with an aim to employ new battery chemistry and simplify the process of battery manufacturing. 

“The problem with making lithium batteries now is that it’s device manufacturing like semiconductors,” Horie said in an interview. “Our goal is to make it more like steel production.”

The making of a cell, a battery’s building block, is a complicated process. It requires the environment to be moisture-free, the air has to be continuously filtered and the materials used in the battery are highly reactive. Horie plans to innovate and disrupt the battery market as his company will replace the battery’s basic components – metal-lined electrodes and liquid electrolytes – with a resin construction. He said that this will significantly simplify the process of battery manufacturing and will make it as simple as “buttering toast.”

Horie first got the idea for this battery while he used to work at Nissan but did not have the financial backing to make his idea a reality. APB raised 8 Billion yen earlier this year and is now in good shape to set up its first factory.

Hideaki Horie has the word ‘idea’ in his first name and he also has an interesting background. Read our next blog on Friday morning to know more about this man