Proactive Investors - Ilika PLC said it will receive £2.8mln grant funding for its role in leading a 24-month Faraday Battery Challenge collaboration with the likes of BMW Group and Williams Advanced Engineering.
Beginning on 1 February 2023, the UK government-backed ‘Project HISTORY’ collaboration programme will see a total £8.2mln of funding for all companies involved.
Ilika will integrate high silicon content electrodes into its Goliath solid-state batteries (SSB) to enable automotive-level performance, partnering with Nexeon, a specialist in using silicon instead of graphite to enhance the power of lithium-ion batteries, and battery materials experts from four universities to deliver “an automotive industry-defined SSB by programme end”.
Manufacturing consultants HSSMI will also work on an SSB life cycle analysis.
The AIM-listed battery developer, which has benefited from participation in other Faraday Battery Challenge schemes, has been developing Goliath large-format batteries designed for automotive battery packs that last longer and can be recycled more easily.
Recently it reported an 80% increase in the energy density of its prototype since the start of the financial year, following a series of scale-up studies, including manufacturing equipment trials backed by the government’s Automotive Transformation Fund.
Ilika chief executive Graeme Purdy said Project HISTORY was calling on an “exceptionally strong consortium with first class expertise and world-renowned industrial experience” and will deliver “an automotive cell, defined by the industry as a minimum viable product, to enable us to move quickly into an industrial SSB pack and battery management system programme”.
BMW’s head of research & development, Georg Steinhoff, said the development of all solid-state batteries is “an important and promising long-term goal, to make future battery-electric vehicles even more sustainable and efficient”.
He added that BMW brings more than 13 years of automotive battery cell development experience, with this know-how being “a key success factor in our electrification strategy, as it defines both operational performance as well as vehicle cost”.
Rob Millar, head of electrical at Williams Advance Engineering, said: "WAE will be working with Ilika and the HISTORY consortium with the objective of further developing Ilika's solid-state Goliath pouch cells.
“WAE remains focused on retaining its leadership position in applied battery technology and by working with companies such as Ilika, sees the benefit of gaining valuable insight into solid-state technology and its application in modules and packs. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship.”