US battery startup that chose China over Kentucky opens first factory as Trump, Xi meet. By David Kirton and Nicoco Chan Reuters Updated September 22, 2026 5:18 AM Gift Article CHANGZHOU, China, Sept 22 (Reuters) - A US battery startup that scrapped plans to make Kentucky the site of its first factory has instead built it in China, exposing the limits of President Donald Trump's efforts to lure manufacturing home just as he welcomes Chinese President Xi Jinping for a summit. EnerVenue starts mass production at its manufacturing facility in the eastern Chinese city of Changzhou on Thursday, the same day Trump meets Xi in Washington, as relations between the superpowers remain strained by a tariff war the US president launched partly to bring back manufacturing and jobs. Chief Executive Henning Rath told Reuters the date was a coincidence, and the decision to manufacture in China instead of the US was down to skills and supply chain depth - particularly in Changzhou, which bills itself as China's "new energy capital." "The secret sauce is this industrial cluster," Rath said, citing the density of hydraulics, pneumatics and automation specialists, along with engineers able to iterate quickly on what he called a "first-of-its-kind" line. Without building in China, Rath said, it would be "very difficult with the capital available" to prove the manufacturing process at a commercial scale. EnerVenue's choice exposes how Trump's offer of lower taxes, easier permitting and other incentives may not be enough to overcome the advantages offered by places like China, even in a sector viewed as critical to US energy security and supply-chain resilience. When Rath joined the company in April, he made building in China a precondition for taking the job. LOWER COSTS, DEEPER EXPERTISE A floor manager at the Changzhou plant said local suppliers often develop equipment without payment until a design is adopted, unlike foreign vendors that tend to ask for money upfront. Graduate engineers earn about 12,000 yuan ($1,792) a month, well below US salaries, he added. EnerVenue, which has R&D in Fremont, California, and was founded by Stanford materials science professor Yi Cui, makes nickel-hydrogen batteries derived from technology NASA used in the Hubble Space Telescope and International Space Station. It announced a Kentucky factory plan in 2023 with a first phase costing $264 million and creating 450 jobs, but abandoned it a year later. Rath, speaking as engineers tested spinning hydraulic arms and lidar-guided robots ferried materials between production stations, said the attempted project was a "valuable learning experience," but the technology wasn't yet ready. EnerVenue went on to redesign both the battery and the factory. EXPANSION PLANS Rath declined to disclose the cost of the Changzhou facility, which is around 95% automated and will employ about 400 workers by the end of the year, but gave a $20 million to $50 million range. Government support was limited to permitting, certification and site selection, he said. EnerVenue raised more than $300 million in a March funding round led by Full Vision Capital, the family office of Hong Kong property heir Peter Lee Ka-kit, whose broader group includes customer Towngas, Rath said, with other investors including Saudi Aramco and SLB. The company aims to reach annual capacity of 250 megawatt hours this year, equal to about 300 battery cells a day, rising to 1 gigawatt hours by the third quarter of 2027. It's unclear whether China-made cells will qualify for US clean energy tax credits, which Trump's 2025 tax law kept for battery storage while adding restrictions on Chinese content and ownership. "We are an American company with a Chinese footprint," Rath said. EnerVenue plans to open similar factories in North America, the Middle East and Europe from 2028, with sites to be chosen next year, said Rath. But he stressed that China is the "factory of factories" and "an important stepping stone" towards global production. Asked whether EnerVenue would open a US plant, Rath said, "We want to play in the North American market. It depends a little bit now on legislation and regulation." ($1 = 6.6955 Chinese yuan) (Editing by Marius Zaharia and Kevin Buckland) This story was originally published September 22, 2026 at 2:39 AM.

EnerVenue appoints Rahul Mehta as CRO. 28 Jul 2026 EnerVenue has appointed Rahul Mehta as its new Chief Revenue Officer, strengthening its commercial leadership as the company prepares for the wider deployment of its fourth-generation Aqueous Metal Cell (AMC) energy storage technology. Based in Singapore, Mehta will oversee the company's global commercial organisation, covering marketing, business development, sales, project delivery and long-term customer services. His role will focus on building customer partnerships, expanding the project pipeline and supporting the company's growing manufacturing capacity. Mehta joins EnerVenue with more than 15 years' experience in the international power and energy sector. Most recently, he served as Vice President of Sales for Asia-Pacific at Fluence, having previously held positions with Hitachi Energy and ABB. He holds a bachelor's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi, and a doctorate from the National University of Singapore. Henning Rath, CEO of EnerVenue, said: "Rahul joins us at the point where our manufacturing scale-up meets real commercial demand, and he is exactly the leader to connect the two. He brings the experience, market credibility and customer relationships required to build a global organization and translate interest in our technology into deployed projects. We are delighted to welcome him to the team and to have him lead our go-to-market strategy as we enter our next phase of growth." Commenting on his appointment, Mehta said: "The power and energy industry is undergoing a significant transformation, and energy storage is central to enabling it. The market still leans heavily on lithium-ion, but as demand profiles grow more complex and customers ask for greater safety, longer life and more flexibility, lithium-ion increasingly has to be complemented by other chemistries. Having spent my career in this sector as storage has scaled, I believe EnerVenue's technology is genuinely differentiated in meeting where the market is heading. I am excited to bring it to customers globally and build the commercial platform required to scale its deployment." EnerVenue is currently completing a 250 MWh production line at its manufacturing facility in Changzhou, China, ahead of a planned expansion to 1 GWh. The programme is supported by a US$300 million extension to the company's Series B financing, completed in early 2026. The company's fourth-generation AMC technology has been operating at a Towngas site near Changzhou since November 2025, where it integrates renewable energy generation with electric bus charging by using continuous deep cycling to match demand and reduce energy costs.

EnerVenue appoints Rahul Mehta as CRO. New revenue officer will be based in Singapore Energy storage developer EnerVenue has appointed Rahul Mehta as Chief Revenue Officer. Mehta will be based in Singapore. EnerVenue CEO Henning Rath said: "Rahul joins us at the point where our manufacturing scale-up meets real commercial demand, and he is exactly the leader to connect the two. "He brings the experience, market credibility and customer relationships required to build a global organization and translate interest in our technology into deployed projects." Mehta said: "The market still leans heavily on lithium-ion, but as demand profiles grow more complex and customers ask for greater safety, longer life and more flexibility, lithium-ion increasingly has to be complemented by other chemistries. "Having spent my career in this sector as storage has scaled, I believe EnerVenue's technology is genuinely differentiated in meeting where the market is heading." Mehta comes to EnerVenue after stints at Fluence, Hitachi Energy, and ABB. EnerVenue is completing a 250 MWh production line at its high-volume manufacturing hub in Changzhou, China, ahead of a planned 1 GWh expansion. The build-out is underpinned by the $300 million extension of EnerVenue's Series B financing round, closed in early 2026, which fully funds the company's near- and mid-term manufacturing capacity.