Ilika signs agreement with UK Battery Industrialisation Centre

The AIM-traded firm said the agreement would support the scale-up of its production of large-format solid-state lithium-ion cell technology, which it said had the potential to “transform” the performance and safety of domestic appliances, as well as electric vehicles.

Currently operating from a pre-pilot production line capable of producing 1kWh per week, Ilika said it had plans to scale-up its current site in Romsey to an automated facility producing 10kWh per week by 2022.

The next stage of scale-up would involve it reaching 5MWh per week to satisfy increasing customer demand.

It said the signing of the framework agreement with UKBIC was a “significant and important” step towards achieving its goal.

Ilika explained that solid-state technology was required to achieve the continuous performance improvements expected by industry and consumers.

Faster charging times, higher energy density and longer lifetimes were all benefits expected to be delivered by the transition to solid-state.

Many companies involved in the manufacture of cordless domestic appliances were demanding performance exceeding the capability of traditional lithium-ion technology, the board claimed.

In the automotive sector, Ilika was collaborating on three projects, supported by more than £5m of grant funding from the UK government's Faraday Battery Challenge, which is managed by Innovate UK.

UKBIC is a publicly-funded battery product development facility in Coventry, with support accessible by any organisation with existing or new battery technology, so long it brought “green jobs and prosperity” to the UK.

“Our Goliath programme is perfectly aligned with the UK's industrial strategy, and we intend to work closely with the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre to scale up our technology for market introduction in the most agile manner possible,” said chief executive officer Graeme Purdy.

At 1113 BST, shares in Ilika were up 8.64% at 88p.