Hampshire-based Ilika (
www.ilika.com) has opened a new ‘large format’ battery facility for the development and initial production of solid-state batteries for electric vehicles (EVs).
The company has established this facility to support its Goliath programme, which underpins its portfolio of industrial partnerships.
These include the recently announced Granite programme (led by Jaguar Land Rover), as well as the MoSESS and PowerDrive Line projects, which started earlier with collaboration partners including Honda and Ricardo.
The new facility has received £5 million of grant-funding through the Faraday Battery Challenge, which is part of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund delivered by UK Research & Innovation.
The new building has a 750m
2 footprint and includes over 600m
2 of battery development laboratories and production equipment.
Two ISO 7-standard clean rooms ensure high-level particle filtration and the near-zero humidity necessary for handling moisture sensitive materials.
The laboratories include ‘state of the art’ equipment for the ‘characterisation’ of source materials, the preparation of solid-state batteries and the testing of produced cells.
A Goliath Pre-Pilot Line (GPPL) has been installed to accelerate the ‘scale-up’ and transfer of the solid-state battery technology to pilot production level.
Ilika CEO Graeme Purdy said: “Ilika has a reputation for being able to respond to commercial opportunities in a rapid, agile manner. This facility was designed, built and commissioned from a standing start in Q4 last year.
"The GPPL will support Ilika to further develop and scale-up its solid-state technology for EVs and give the UK its first footprint for the development of a technology expected to significantly disrupt the automotive industry.”