Silicon can add electric car range, and it just became a critical mineral too

Silicon lets a battery hold more energy in the same space

Most lithium batteries store their charge in an anode, the electrode inside the battery that holds the charge while the battery is full, built mostly from graphite. Adding silicon to that electrode lets the same size cell hold more energy, because silicon can hold far more lithium atoms than graphite can. The Department of Energy runs a research program chasing 350 or more watt hours per kilogram from a silicon anode car battery, more energy in the same weight than cells sold today reach. Its own numbers name the problem. Silicon swells by about 320% as it takes on lithium, and that swelling cracks the coating meant to protect it. Cycle life and capacity have both improved, the program states in its own words, but measured calendar life, how many years a cell keeps working, still reaches only about 10% of its 10 year target.

A material the United States just called critical

A critical minerals list is a government list of materials a country worries about losing access to. On November 7, 2025, the United States Geological Survey added silicon to that list for the first time. The list now names 60 minerals, 50 carried over from 2022 and 10 new, including silicon. The agency states the reason plainly. China controls 70 to 80% of the market for silicon, titanium and chromium ferroalloys, and that concentration is why all 3 joined the list for 2025. Graphite was already on the list in 2022 and stays on it now, for close to the same reason. Silicon is not mined as a byproduct, a material produced alongside a main one, the way graphite partly is. The mines are not the bottleneck. The plants that refine silicon into battery grade metal sit in the same small group of countries that process graphite.

A named automaker has committed to it

Mercedes Benz and Sila, a materials company, state their partnership on silicon anode chemistry began in 2019. They state Sila material reaches more than 800 watt hours per litre at cell level, a 20 to 40% increase over commercially available cells of a comparable format, and they have set a mid decade target for an electric G Class built around it. Markus Schafer, chief technology officer of Mercedes Benz Group, said this.

Delivering such a high energy density is a true game changer and allows us to think in completely new directions when developing future electric cars.

Markus Schafer, chief technology officer, Mercedes Benz Group. Source 4.

Gene Berdichevsky, co founder and chief executive officer of Sila, said this about the same material.

We're focused on delivering materials that are cost-efficient and capable of delivering on the promise of electric vehicles.

Gene Berdichevsky, co founder and chief executive officer, Sila. Source 4.

No source here confirms that car is for sale today. The target dates to a 2022 announcement.

Where the metal comes from today

Group14 Technologies, a silicon anode material maker, states it already runs 10 gigawatt hours of production capacity at a plant in Sangju, South Korea, and plans 20 gigawatt hours more at a plant in Washington State by 2027. In January 2025, the United States Geological Survey counted where imports of high purity silicon metal into the United States came from. Brazil supplied the most, 4,400 tons of silicon content, compared with 383 tons from China.