On June 20, Packet Digital officially secured the location for its future battery cell plant in Fargo, North Dakota. With the location and building in place, Packet Digital will begin construction on the facility and begin acquiring the equipment needed to manufacture its highly reliable, high-performance drone battery cells in the United States.
The decision to build a state-of-the-art drone battery plant is part of the company’s larger ambition to consolidate the manufacturing process. Once completed, Packet Digital will build high-performance battery cells and assemble batteries at its battery pack manufacturing facility in Fargo. The 80,000-square-foot battery cell plant will be the company’s third location.
“The Department of Defense has made it a priority to ramp up domestic production of critical UAS components,” Packet Digital CEO Terri Zimmerman said. “As an industry leader in building battery and charging systems that are safe, reliable and high performing, the time was right to streamline the supply chain and fully manufacture our products from our high-energy density battery cells and electronics to assembled battery packs, right here in the U.S.”
Packet Digital is partnering closely with raw material providers from across the U.S. in order to secure a domestic supply of raw materials. Packet Digital is also partnering with universities in the innovative approach to produce lithium-ion batteries with raw materials localization.
“Building this facility is an important step towards UAS battery manufacturing in the United States, and the support we’ve received from city, state and federal governments, as well as university systems has helped make this possible,” Zimmerman said.
Construction will begin in 2024 and Packet Digital expects to manufacture battery cells for customers in the plant by the end of 2025.
