Low-cost LUCAS (Unmanned Combat Attack System) drones are positioned on the tarmac of a base located in the US Central Command operational area.
Source: American CENTCOM
An Arizona-based battery startup led by a former General engines The executive is shifting from making products for all-electric vehicles to making products for the aerospace and defense industries, amid the war in Iran and growing demand for U.S. drones from the Trump administration.
Sion Power plans to commercialize high-energy lithium-metal battery cells for drones and other defense-related products later this year, after focusing on developing fully electric vehicles for much of the last decade, according to CEO Pamela Fletcher.
“We are looking at commercializing this technology,” Fletcher told CNBC exclusively. “We had hoped and thought it would be in the automotive area, and I think that possibility still exists, but the quickest route, and frankly, a great need, exists in this defense area.”
The move is a unique example of how companies betting on the unrealized adoption of fully electric vehicles are pivoting to different segments. Other companies have turned to the stationary storage and aerospace sectors to use spare battery production capacity for electric vehicles.
U.S. automakers have moved significantly away from pure electric vehicles and recorded billions of dollars in writedowns following slower-than-expected adoption of such vehicles and the Trump administration’s changes to the incentives that supported them.
According to the company, Sion Power’s planned “Licerion HE” lithium-metal battery cells will support both primary or single-discharge and secondary or rechargeable battery applications.
The battery cells are designed for next-generation drones, autonomous systems and other critical platforms that require maximum power in the smallest, lightest footprint possible, according to Fletcher.
“Lithium-metal technology, which we developed, has high gravimetric energy, which means it’s a lot of energy in a lightweight package,” said Fletcher, who began running the company in 2024. “It works very well for objects that fly.”
Fletcher said Sion Power’s lithium-metal cells are designed to deliver energy densities in excess of 500 watt hours per kilogram, compared to about 300 to 350 Wh/kg for today’s most advanced lithium-ion technology.
Such batteries can power drones or missiles as well as their onboard systems such as cameras, sensors and processors for combat, surveillance and other needs.
Sion Power has a 110,000 square foot facility in Tucson, Arizona, with pilot manufacturing capabilities. Fletcher said it is currently producing Licerion HE cells for defense applications and is converting its cell line from automotive battery cell production to defense products, which are smaller.
Pamela Fletcher, CEO of Sion Power, former executive at General Motors
Mario Anzuoni | Reuters
The company will continue to develop cells for other segments, such as electric vehicles, but its main focus and current growth is defense, which the company worked on before focusing on electric vehicles, Fletcher said.
Fletcher, a former electric vehicle and growth company executive who left GM in 2022, said the opportunities in defense are comparable to the continued increase in demand for energy storage in U.S. data centers.
The private company does not plan to be a direct supplier to the U.S. government, but it hopes to sell its products to other certified contractors, Fletcher said. The move comes as the Trump administration’s Department of Defense plans to increase production of low-cost U.S.-sourced unmanned aerial combat drones, or LUCAS.
These drones are an integral part of the war between Russia and Ukraine as well as the war in Iran.
“It’s evolved pretty quickly over the last three or four years, and now, even with the war in Iran, things are changing even more,” Mitch Hourtienne, Sion Power’s chief commercial officer, told CNBC. “Unfortunately, many emerging applications have come from the war in Ukraine, and now the war in Iran.”
Sion Power’s custom defense package that includes its Licerion lithium-metal battery cells.
Courtesy of Zion Power
Several companies other than Sion Power, such as Quantum landscapehave spent years researching and developing lithium-metal batteries for vehicles, but until now there has been no mass commercialization of the use of this technology in the automotive sector.
Lithium-metal battery cells operate similarly to lithium-ion cells currently in use, but have greater energy density, potentially at a lower cost. But they can be more volatile and are considered more remote than new solid-state batteries for cars, experts say.
Sam Abuelsamid, vice president of market research at communications and consulting company Telemetry, said lithium-metal cells could be used for different industries and use cases.
“It’s better for energy density. It should also reduce costs,” said Abuelsamid, an engineer and battery expert. “There’s no reason why they shouldn’t be as effective on smaller objects, especially ones that fly, like a drone.”
The biggest difference between defense and automotive is shelf life versus shelf life. Automotive batteries typically require hundreds of charge life cycles, while defense uses only require one to 20 cycles and can require three to eight years of shelf life.
Sion Power has raised more than $200 million for lithium-metal cell development. Investors include South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s family office, Hillspire, and Unnamed Global Automakers, according to the company.
The company, established in 1989 as a spinoff from Brookhaven National Laboratory, said it plans to seek additional capital as its products are expected to be launched and developed in the second half of 2026 and through 2027.