3 Questions for… Christin-Marie Boudgoust, Morrow Batteries
“Morrow "electrified" all heating and drying processes in cell manufacturing”
Challenges and Opportunities in the Global Battery Market: Sustainability, Costs and Flexibility as the Key to Success - Boudgoust’s talk on 9 July 2025 in Munich.
Morrow Batteries
How can sustainability, cost-efficiency, and flexibility be reconciled in battery cell manufacturing? Christin-Marie Boudgoust, CCO of Morrow Batteries, shares her perspective ahead of her talk at the Automotive Battery Conference.
With over a decade of international experience in the battery industry—including leadership roles at Samsung SDI and Webasto—Christin-Marie Boudgoust now shapes the commercial strategy of Morrow Batteries as Chief Commercial Officer.
Before her presentation at the Automotive Battery Conference 2025, we spoke with her about the company’s dual approach to sustainability and performance, the cost levers that don’t compromise safety, and how local-for-local strategies help maintain global competitiveness.
ADT: What innovations do you see as key to balancing sustainability and performance in battery cell development?
Boudgoust: On the product side, in addition to an existing established supply chain for LFP, Morrow started to develop a second source option for subcomponents and material. This also includes a potential localisation to reduce the CO₂ footprint. Additionally, Morrow is developing LNMO, offering the same performance as competitive chemistries, but being much more efficient in material consumption, as it does not use cobalt and substantially reduces the amount of nickel and lithium used—making it much more sustainable without compromising on performance. On the process side, Morrow "electrified" all heating and drying processes in cell manufacturing and uses only hydropower, making the use of natural gas obsolete and substantially reducing CO₂ emissions in battery manufacturing while maintaining performance.
How do you approach cost optimisation without compromising safety or long-term reliability?
In parallel to innovative chemistries like LNMO, which reduce material costs (no cobalt, less nickel and lithium) and production costs (water-based active material instead of NMP-based slurry) compared to chemistries with similar performance, Morrow also targets long-term partnerships, which allow for proper resource planning and the establishment of long-term supply contracts for sub-materials. In addition, the approach above plays a major role. Through improved technology that uses fewer materials, costs are optimised while maintaining safety and reliability. Additionally, increasing volumes (upscaling) reduces the cost per cell. So increasing manufacturing volume is one of the main drivers to optimise cost, while at the same time manufacturing yield has to be increased and scrap reduced. This combination, in fact, increases quality and at the same time reduces cost very effectively.
What role does global flexibility play in staying competitive within a volatile battery market?
Morrow sees a trend to source components like batteries "local for local". We listen carefully to customers’ needs and outlooks. We regularly check and adjust the strategy and roadmaps to stay flexible in fulfilling customer requirements and adapting to global trends.
