FREYR Battery Provides Operations Update: FREYR achieves important interim milestone by successfully conducting automated cathode casting trials

Nov 29, 2023

FREYR CQP Pouch assembly 1

NEW YORK & OSLO, Norway & LUXEMBOURG--FREYR Battery (NYSE: FREY) (“FREYR” or the “Company”), a developer of clean, next-generation battery cell production capacity, has provided an update this morning on the company’s operational progress at the Customer Qualification Plant (“CQP”) in Mo i Rana, Norway.

Successful automated cathode casting trials

Following successful adjustments to the cathode casting equipment that included updates to the vacuum system, last week, FREYR’s teams at the CQP commenced automated cathode casting runs at a minimum nozzle distance of 0.26 mm.

The CQP teams have subsequently conducted successful cathode casting runs using the cathode web and solvent slurry at fixed nozzle distances of 0.5 mm and 1.0 mm, respectively, and at speeds of 2 meters per minute while using 100 psi of casting pressure. These successful automated cathode casting runs with solvent slurry were an important precursor to completing the Casting and Unit Cell Assembly commissioning packages and the eventual start of automated CQP production.

“I am very pleased to share that our teams at the CQP have reached another important interim technical milestone,” commented Mike Brose, FREYR’s Head of the Asset Mo team. “In doing so, our people and partners have demonstrated their collective ability to systematically link small but critical steps together to achieve the required outcome. We are able to integrate this vital part of the SemiSolidTM technology platform only because of the many milestones already completed together over the last several months by the FREYR Asset Mo team, our coworkers around the world, and our valued partners and suppliers. As we look forward to 2024, FREYR’s top priority is to finalize commissioning at the CQP and to begin automated production of in-spec, customer-testable batteries. With this latest milestone behind us, we will continue to apply unwavering focus to the remaining tasks that are necessary to achieve that goal.”

CQP commissioning status and key next steps

Following the successful automated cathode casting trials, FREYR has completed handovers of 342 (88%) of the 388 discrete production line equipment commissioning and testing packages at the CQP. The test center packages and handovers to operations are all complete.

The next technical requirements to stay on track with FREYR’s anticipated completion cadence at the *CQP are:

  • Replicate the successful automated cathode casting trials with the anode production line system; and
  • Integrate the casting webs across the cathode, anode, and merge units of the Casting and Unit Cell Assembly equipment using the highly complex Multi-Carrier Systems (“MCS”) to reach automated cell production.

* The CQP consists of an industrial scale production line, as well as an operative quality test lab and a testcenter for life cycle testing of battery cells.

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About FREYR Battery

FREYR Battery is a developer of clean, next-generation battery cell production capacity. The company’s mission is to accelerate the decarbonization of global energy and transportation systems by producing clean, cost-competitive batteries. FREYR seeks to serve the primary markets of energy storage systems (“ESS”) and commercial mobility, and the company maintains an ambition to serve the passenger electric vehicles market (“EV”). FREYR’s Customer Qualification Plant (“CQP”) for technology development is in service in Mo I Rana, Norway, and the company is commencing development of the Giga America battery manufacturing project in Coweta County, Georgia, in the U.S. To learn more about FREYR, please visit www.freyrbattery.com.

Investor contact:
Jeffrey Spittel
Head of Investor Relations
jeffrey.spittel@freyrbattery.com
Tel: (+1) 409 599-5706

Media contact:
Amy Jaick
Global Head of Communications
amy.jaick@freyrbattery.com
Tel: (+1) 973 713-5585

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

All statements, other than statements of present or historical fact included in this letter, including, without limitation, the development, financing, construction, timeline, capacity, and other usefulness of FREYR Battery’s (“FREYR”) production facilities or gigafactories; FREYR’s ability to complete commissioning of its Customer Qualification Plant (“CQP”) and to achieve targeted improvements and the commencement of automated production of in-spec, customer-testable cells, including continuous process and production improvements on 24M Technologies Inc.’s SemiSolid™ platform; FREYR’s ability to establish the U.S. as its primary strategic production hub; any potential or intended benefits of FREYR’s new organizational structure, including strengthening and expediting FREYR’s ability to execute its vision and its strategic development; the ability of FREYR to optimize its organizational structure to align with its strategic priorities and generate long-term shareholder value; FREYR’s ability to achieve scale-up of new and conventional technology into gigafactories; any potential benefits of the U.S. Department of Energy loan program and Inflation Reduction Act; and the implementation and effectiveness of FREYR’s overall business and technology strategies are forward-looking statements.

These forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from the expected results. Most of these factors are outside FREYR’s control and are difficult to predict. Additional information about factors that could materially affect FREYR is set forth under the “Risk Factors” section in (i) FREYR’s Registration Statement on Form S-3 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on September 1, 2022, (ii) FREYR Battery, Inc.’s Registration Statement on Form S-4 filed with the SEC on September 8, 2023 and subsequent amendments thereto filed on October 13, 2023, October 19, 2023, and October 31, 2023, (iii) FREYR’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 27, 2023, and (iv) FREYR’s Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on May 15, 2023, August 10, 2023 and November 9, 2023 and available on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Except as otherwise required by applicable law, FREYR disclaims any duty to update any forward-looking statements, all of which are expressly qualified by the statements in this section, to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this presentation. Should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results and projections could differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements.

FREYR intends to use its website as a channel of distribution to disclose information which may be of interest or material to investors and to communicate with investors and the public. Such disclosures will be included on FREYR’s website in the ‘Investor Relations’ sections. FREYR also intends to use certain social media channels, including, but not limited to, Twitter and LinkedIn, as means of communicating with the public and investors about FREYR, its progress, products, and other matters. While not all the information that FREYR posts to its digital platforms may be deemed to be of a material nature, some information may be. As a result, FREYR encourages investors and others interested to review the information that it posts and to monitor such portions of FREYR’s website and social media channels on a regular basis, in addition to following FREYR’s press releases, SEC filings, and public conference calls and webcasts. The contents of FREYR’s website and other social media channels shall not be deemed incorporated by reference in any filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.