Alameda, California-based battery tech company Sila wants to hit the ground running when it opens its plant in Moses Lake in central Washington.
Sila, which raised $375 million in late June, has already hired dozens of workers in Moses Lake but is planning to hire around 100 in the near term as the plant approaches completion, slated for in the first quarter of next year. Deliveries to auto customers are expected to start late next year.
Sila co-founder and CEO Gene Berdichevsky said the plant will employ about 500 workers eventually, but that will require further investment.
"It's almost entirely operations-related. That includes everything from safety, quality, engineering, technicians, maintenance, supply chain, IT," Berdichevsky said. "We're not going to be doing development of new reactor technology, for example, there. It's operating this facility. That's really the focus."
Sila bought the more than 600,000-square-foot facility in 2022. The company previously told the Business Journal it would cost in the "low nine figures" to ready it for production, and it started the build-out of the facility in November of last year.
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Outside the building, Sila is already erecting steel beams and pouring concrete to add to the factory. Berdichevsky said there are roughly 100 to 200 construction workers on-site at any given time. He added that the company is hiring workers ahead of the plant's completion because Sila wants the workers trained and ready to go when it opens.
The company is hiring workers locally as well as relocating employees from its Bay Area headquarters. Berdichevsky said Sila will post jobs in Moses Lake, and internal employees will often apply for the roles.
"It's really cool to bring a first-of-a-kind product into the world at scale," Berdichevsky said. "And Moses Lake is a great town. It's quieter. It's more peaceful. There's a lot of folks that are happy to make that move."
Sila was founded in 2011. The company makes a silicon-based anode powder meant to replace the traditional graphite powder found in most batteries today, with the aim of making batteries cheaper, smaller and longer lasting. The company already powers a wearable fitness tracker called the Whoop, but its larger ambitions, and a major reason for the plant in Moses Lake, include electric vehicles.
Sila has about 400 employees total, and the company will keep its Alameda headquarters after finishing the Moses Lake plant, Berdichevsky said.
The plant will supply Mercedes-Benz, Panasonic and three unnamed customers, according to Sila, and will eventually be able to produce enough of its powder for up to 1 million cars per year. In October, Sila named Rosendo Alvarado as its Moses Lake plant manager. Alvarado was previously Sila's head of operations and has more than 30 years of experience.
Sila raised $590 million in 2021, after which it was valued at $3.3 billion. The company didn't provide an updated value.
Moses Lake has cheap electrical power and a strong labor pool, which has drawn Sila competitors like Group14 Technologies and OneD Battery Sciences. According to Berdichevsky, this battery technology will become more standard in the coming years.
"I think in the next two years you'll drive EVs with silicon-anode technology," Berdichevsky said. "By the end of the decade, it will be the standard for new vehicles."
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