There are a few reasons why startups try to make a big splash in the press: they’re ready to start selling their product, they’re looking for partners or customers to test the product or they want to raise money. The last of those would be my guess why a battery startup called Alevo – with offices in Switzerland, a newly purchased factory building in North Carolina and a Norwegian entrepreneur founder — has decided to do a full-court press on the media for its coming out party this week.

Alevo says that, for the past ten years, it has been working on a new type of battery made from lithium iron phosphate, and it was officially founded as a company six years ago. Alevo officials say their battery can be charged and discharged over 40,000 cycles, which is a very long life time for this type of battery, and they say their secret sauce is an inorganic electrolyte made from sulfur that significantly reduces the battery’s degradation over time.