Skeleton hires industry veteran to drive growth
Skeleton Technologies has attracted former Northvolt Senior Director of Manufacturing Tobias Hüppe. He joins Skeleton as the company's new Chief Operations Officer (COO) and will utilise his experience in the battery industry as he steers the company's manufacturing expansion.
Tobias Hüppe comes to supercapacitor specialist Skeleton Technologies with a background in scaling battery manufacturing and establishing gigafactories, notably as a manufacturing executive at Northvolt. His career also spans roles in the automotive industry with Faurecia, Webasto, and Edscha.
“I am very excited to join the Skeleton Technologies’ team to accelerate domestic production of energy storage that is also innovative, has unique selling points on a global level and reduces Europe’s dependencies on critical raw materials sourced from elsewhere,” Hüppe says in a press release.
Skeleton’s former COO Dr Linus Froböse will continue with the company but as Chief Technology Officer (CTO), utilising his R&D background to fast-track technology and product development. He will also take on a key role in expanding the production of Curved Graphene, Skeleton’s proprietary carbon material.
“The battery industry is actively seeking sustainable substitutes for critical raw materials like nickel and cobalt to ensure Europe’s security of supply. Curved Graphene enhances electrode performance using locally sourced materials which are widely accessible and abundant in Europe. Our focus now is on expanding production to broaden the material’s availability and harness its potential,” Dr. Froböse explains in the press release.
Curved Graphene is developed and produced in Skeleton Materials’ facility in Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Germany. Earlier in October, Skeleton announced a EUR 108M EUR financing round with investors including Siemens and Marubeni to expand manufacturing capacity and accelerate the development of next-generation products.
Skeleton is currently ramping up manufacturing of its supercapacitor product line with a new factory near Leipzig in collaboration with Siemens. The supercapacitor factory will increase the company’s production capacity by up to 40 times. Mass production is currently scheduled to start by the end of 2024.
