Choosing the wrong geography can kill a FOAK, but being forced to choose too early almost certainly will. Lyten is moving manufacturing from the US to Sweden and Poland, while trying to keep its FOAK in Nevada. Freyr started in Norway, shifted to the US, and eventually walked away from batteries altogether. In today’s increasingly fragmented world, choosing a location for your FOAK can be central to survival. And too many founders are being pushed to make that choice before t

Today is the first monthly check-in on the 23 FOAK climate tech projects  I said I’d track publicly in 2026! FOAKs get talked about more and more, which is definitely a good thing! I’m following up on the developments of the largest and most interesting FOAK projects in climate tech. I first go over the good news, then the bad, and you’ll get an updated table at the end! The good news (actual execution happened) H2 Green Steel (now Stegra)  signed a long-term supply agreement

My friend Jean Gravellier once drove me around the Dunkirk area. I’ve seen the ArcelorMittal steel plant, the nuclear power station, and locations for future battery gigafactories. “Why there?” I thought. So many polluting industries, all in one place? There are many reasons, but one is permitting - businesses with a higher environmental footprint go where it is easier to get approval from local governments. There is a reason that many battery companies in Europe are in Hunga

Once or twice a year, if you stay long enough in climate and battery scale-ups, you encounter a technology that politely asks you to forget thermodynamics, manufacturing constraints, and twenty years of painful industrial learning. Like a lot of other things, this year’s entry arrived early. The battery world is currently excited about Donut Lab solid state battery. Let’s outline the plausible range of outcomes: 1 Worst case: it’s a scam. Svolt has already called it out (yo

Europe spends a lot of time talking about battery gigafactories. We discuss cell chemistries, subsidy schemes, factory locations, and how many gigawatts of capacity will be built by when. All of that matters. But a part of the battery value chain rarely makes it into these conversations, even though it has a disproportionate impact on cost, risk, and credibility. Battery chemicals. Not cells or packs, but the solvents, electrolytes, and precursors that sit upstream of every c

EU eased CO₂ regulations for automakers at the end of last year. Almost immediately, parts of the LinkedIn community declared the EV transition dead: OEMs will return to ICE, Europe will lose the race, and incumbents will be finished. I argued the opposite. The legislation did not reopen a real path back to combustion. It was a gambit - giving away something to score a bigger victory. In practice, it pushed European carmakers toward EVs. That is exactly what is now being conf

Every time someone says software-defined vehicle, I imagine driving 250 km/h on the Autobahn and seeing: “System has unexpectedly crashed. Reboot in progress.” That thought led me to dig into SDVs, money, and who actually benefits.

A recommendation on a podcast about the 2025 EV market

Europe keeps announcing “battery partnerships” with Asian players with great enthusiasm — but when you look closely, the only thing landing here in any meaningful quantity is concrete. A T&E/Carbone4 report, which came out this February and which I’ve missed, lays out what many of us working in manufacturing have suspected for years: technology isn’t coming, know-how isn’t coming, and the only thing being localised is the assembly hall.

Mega-corporations rarely die from a single dramatic mistake. They fade through a sequence of small decisions that felt “pragmatic” at the time.

Why Tesla Pivots to Korea from China?

Why touchscreens are not the key strength of the Chinese car industry.

The Occam's Razor as applied to electric cars

I spoke with a European founder developing his own battery cells. Just getting permits for the mixing and coating stages pushed his...

This was my second Battery Day in the Netherlands. Last year I came for the first time and was surprised at how much battery innovation...

A short comparison of LDES technologies

The lessons of Natron Energy collapse

In the end, it had to be a political decision. After half a year of sifting through more than twenty locations and countless meetings...

What is the future of electric mobility?

This post is about how Duke went from idea to operational factory in under 9 months—and what practical lessons it offers for cleantech scale-ups.