A Dundee technology company has played a key role in a Europe-wide project to create new lighter and safer battery systems for electric vehicles.
Axeon at Gourdie Industrial Estate was given the vital job of selecting the cells for the EU-funded SmartBatt programme, a development project involving nine technical partners from five countries including German motoring giant Volkswagen.
The aim of the project was to develop and provide an innovative electric vehicle battery system which could be integrated into a vehicle’s core structure.
Core objectives included making the system 15% lighter than current conventional battery packs, minimising costs and producing a design capable of being mass produced.
Axeon’s role saw the company investigate a number of different concepts metal case against pouch cell systems in order to achieve maximum energy output within the space available to package the battery pack.
The company, part of the Johnson Matthey group, also led some of the tasks regarding assessment of the impact of future cell developments, theoretical risk and failure analysis, and how energy storage systems can be easily replaced.
Once the technical development work was complete, the consortium then designed and developed a suitable battery housing system and it was fitted within a vehicle before undergoing a series of safety and performance tests.
Roanna Doe, who took over as managing director of Axeon this month, said the company had been able to bring its experience in electrochemistry to the table.
She said: “Our expertise was put into use in determining the optimum cells to use in order to increase energy density and thus range, which is vital for increasing the uptake of electric vehicles.
“The SmartBatt project demonstrated that integrating a battery into the vehicle structure can reduce weight without compromising safety and can also reduce costs, another important objective for electric vehicles.”