UK prepares for production of EV solid state batteries
UK startup Ilika is planning to ramp up shipments of its solid state batteries as samples to car makers.
The company is sampling the 10Ah oxide-based solid state battery cell for customer prototype testing and is starting to ship a pilot production line, although this is to prove the technology for licensing. “We are giving the UK car industry the option of taking a UK developed solid state battery,” Ilika CEO Graeme Purdy tells eeNews Europe.
This is part of ensuring a sovereign supply chain for automotive batteries in the UK and Europe, which was also the plan for failed battery business NorthVolt which collapsed earlier this year.
“At Northvolt the problem was unbridled ambition and a lack of focus. If they had focussed on getting going on gigafactory operations with a razor sharp intensity on increasing yield with an attractive margin with Asian partners, that would have been successful but it was a very diluting business strategy,” he tells eeNews Europe.
“You’ve seen the global turmoil not just in the last week, but post Covid there is a desire in many industries to start shortening its supply chains. The UK has a rules of origin agreement with the EU so that there are none of these tariffs that we have to worry about for the supply chain,” he said. “We are also talking to European automotive companies.”
“Later this summer we will be releasing our P1.5 10Ah prototype that we could build into packs and some of the interactions we have with tier ones and OEMs are looking at packs,” says Purdy. The company has seen encouraging data from the UK Battery Innovation Centre (UKBIC) on the materials used for the 10Ah cells.
At the same time the UK-funded SiSTEM project has seen the development of a 1.5MWh solid-state battery assembly line from Mpac with delivery planned for the second half of 2025. This assembly line will be capable of producing Ilika’s Goliath prototype large-format pouch cells to automotive original equipment manufacturers and Tier 1 suppliers.
“The automotive industry has a language all its own. A sample is a set of samples that can be delivered to a specific specification but they are often made on a pilot line. A B sample is the same battery but made on industrial equipment that can be transferred. C samples are made in much larger volumes for hundreds of vehicles in an initial production run,” he said.
“This is a generic A sample based on our technology and then a commercialisation agreement would see a custom version in early 2026 for customers. We would then work with them to scale up on B samples as you need a good idea of the vehicle platform that the cells will be integrated into.”
“By the end of the year we want to get to the P2 samples at 50Ah as full commercial cells,” said Purdy.
This would lead to deployment at gigafactory scale in 2027 with C samples in 2028. “We are setting ourselves up nicely for that nicely,” he said.
This marks a key turning point in a long journey. “We were originally formed as a spinout of Southampton University in 2004, that’s 21 years ago now,” he said. “That’s not unusual for leading edge deeptech companies in Europe, the timeline to get through to a fully commercial product ais quite long.”
“The big advantage of UKBIC is that it is a 2GWh facility so it is big enough to make B samples there. This gives OEMs confidence that the process can be transferred,” he said. “We have demonstrated that our process can be scaled up so by the end of this year we will make the A samples on the pilot line and we will combine process and product for B samples at UKBIC or at the OEM partners.”
The Goliath solid state battery technology
“That’s a key thing about the choice of materials for solid state batteries. The oxide approach we use comes from our early years as we specialised in high throughput for rapid screening of different functional materials. Toyota did a lot of work with us in the early 2010s screening new candidate materials for SSBs so we have joint patents with Toyota and we found that the ease of handling of oxides means this is the candidate for scaleup for a gigafactory. Oxides are more stable rather than sulfides that are reactive with moisture and you then need expensive safety systems in the factory,” he said.
The technology is an oxide ceramic combined with a nickel, manganese cobalt (NMC) cathode and a silicon carbon composite anode. It has worked with UK silicon material supplier Nexeon in a trial but is leaving its options open for the exact specification, he says. “By the end of the year we will have decided what we will use.”
“We have done some interesting modelling with Balance Batteries which has demonstrated the savings a vehicle level by using our type of solid state battery with the Hyundai IONIQ5,” he said. This shows a 20% weight saving which corresponds to extended range and reduced bill of materials, for a £2500 reduction in the BoM.
The other advantage of the solid state batteries is a more rapid charge rate as they can operate at a higher temperature. “In our solid state battery SSB we can allow up to 120degC which is the limit of the electronics for rapid charging, reducing the charging time from 18 minutes to 12 minutes.”
“Gigafactories are infrastructure projects to supply an industry so we align ourselves with companies that see that as their core mission. Our model is very much to work with OEMs and Tier One gigafactory developers,” he said.
The company has already been through this development and manufacturing cycle with a solid state battery for medical devices through a US joint venture with Cirtec. “This whole model is a rerun with what we achieved with Stereax. We did see the shortening of the supply chains and most of the end customers are US headquartered medical device companies for active implantable devices and we wanted to make sure that when we transferred the technology it was through a US partner and that’s going very well.”
Electric vehicles are not the only market, as battery energy storage systems (BESS) in renewable energy is an opportunity for the solid state batteries.
“We have enquiries on BESS with interest on the temperature tolerance, as you need air conditioning for the containers especially in the Middle East and if you have a temperature tolerant pack you take the capital cost out and enhance safety. This would need gigafactory scale production as this application is cost sensitive, but lithium ion batteries are more readily available through the supply chain so in fact they are cheaper than sodium. If we have the performance of NMC and the safety and cost of LFP (lithium iron phosphate) you have a compelling economic case but it’s early days.”
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