By: Harrold Rust, Co-Founder, President & CEO
For us at Enovix, this year’s U.S. Manufacturing Day — held the first Friday each October and falling on October 7th this year — is an opportunity to pause and take stock of how far we have come as a next-generation battery manufacturer since becoming a public company in July 2021. While we still have to rely on global supply chains for some of our foreign components, our team has cleared hurdle after hurdle, going above and beyond to stay ahead of supply chain snarls to become a pioneering company that designs and assembles its battery cells in the United States at our first manufacturing facility (“Fab-1”) in Fremont, California. We are now in commercial production and earlier this year we announced BrakeFlowTM technology, ushering in a new level of safety in next-gen lithium-ion batteries.
When we first launched Enovix in 2007, we didn’t know what would be possible. Like many others, we didn’t predict a global pandemic and the challenges that came with it, or any other global events that have reshaped society in the last three years. We knew producing an entirely new Li-ion battery architecture would be very challenging. But our passion for solving tough problems and a collective belief that the world desperately needed a better battery, helped drive us past these obstacles to develop and produce the next generation Li-ion battery.
In April 2021, when cargo piled up in terminals and ports, we chartered one of Antonov Airlines’ jets to fly critical battery production equipment from Asia to San Francisco. Thanks to this extraordinary move, which we dubbed Operation Airlift, we stayed on track to reach our first manufacturing milestone. In August 2021, we announced that we had completed equipment installation of our first U.S.-based advanced battery production line and in September 2021, we announced that we had assembled battery cells from our automated factory in Fab-1. This turned out to be a banner year for Enovix. In August 2022, we announced we shipped commercial cells and reported first revenue for the quarter ended July 3, 2022.
Celebrating Fremont Manufacturing Week & U.S. Manufacturing Day
We believe the future of the battery industry is in the hands of a new wave of young professionals. We are honored that high school students from Mission Valley ROP technical education program and undergraduate engineering students from Cal State University, East Bay, chose to visit our facility during Fremont Manufacturing Week.
We are creating high-quality manufacturing jobs for our local community and opening pathways and opportunities for growth. None of our manufacturing facility production operator jobs require a college degree. Enovix pays a competitive hourly wage for production operators with shift differentials as applicable, plus health and dental benefits, a 401(k) plan with company contribution, stock incentives, paid time off and a company-wide bonus program. We have many great opportunities for qualified individuals to join our team.
Creating a Better Battery and a Great Company
Reaching this point, where we can contribute and create career opportunities for students like those who visited us today, has been a journey. It has required ingenuity, determination and, frankly, grit from the Enovix team.
While the team here at Enovix comes to work every day with the utmost drive and dedication towards our mission, we can’t help but reflect on the last year and feel grateful for the support we have received from our community. It has inspired us to look ahead for what’s next for Enovix and the battery industry at-large. There is still much work ahead, but this Manufacturing Day, we are feeling extremely optimistic about the future of domestic manufacturing and our ability to scale production to power the technologies of the future. We’re just getting started.
To join our team please visit www.enovix.com/careers.
