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Missouri Companies Continue To Lead The World In Battery Development Industry

  • January 09, 2019

Missouri is home to leading developers and producers of batteries for the defense, space, automotive, and consumer industries. Our batteries power NASA’s space program, we are in the top three states for battery production and a leading developer of next-generation lithium batteries in the U.S.

One Missouri city in particular, Joplin, Missouri, may have reason to declare itself the home of two of the most cutting-edge battery manufacturers in the country. ZAF Energy Systems, a leading developer of nickel-zinc batteries and EaglePicher Technologies, a leading developer of lithium ion batteries both call the city home.

“We provide battery power for over 500 satellites, the international space station (and) the Hubble telescope,” said Ron Nowlin, vice president and general manager of aerospace systems for EaglePicher. “So we’ve been in space for a long time, and this will ensure that we’ll be in space for a long time in the future as well.”

Fall 2016 saw EaglePicher open a new 100,000-sq.-ft. Lithium Ion Center of Excellence in its hometown of Joplin. A year later, Montana-based ZAF Energy Systems announced the opening of its own new production facility in Joplin, where an initial $20-million investment brought more than 100 jobs to Missouri.

“We just weren’t able to keep up with the demand with the capacity we had in Montana,” said ZAF President and CEO Randy Moore. “The new production facility in Joplin will drastically scale up production to several thousand batteries per month, enabling us to keep pace with growing demand while also refining manufacturing processes and accelerating development efforts.”

Check out our webpage detailing Missouri’s Energy Solutions industry here.

For more information on Missouri’s energy solutions industry, contact Steve Johnson, CEO of Missouri Partnership, at 314.725.2688 or via our contact form. We’d be happy to answer any questions you might have, and show you how Missouri Partnership can help with your business expansion and investment needs.

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