Analysis
Business ministers brought up to speed on Axeon electric vehicle battery technology
Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, and Business Minister, Mark Prisk, were yesterday brought up to speed on Axeon’s industry-leading battery technology for electric vehicles, on display in the Low Carbon vehicle exhibition at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Don Axeon is Europe’s leading provider of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and the battery on display uses Lithium Nickel Cobalt Manganese (NCM) cell chemistry in polymer pouch cell format, which until recently have not been used in automotive applications.
The programme to develop the battery was developed with part-funding from the UK government’s Technology Strategy Board and also involved another UK-based automotive technology supplier, Ricardo, which developed the battery electronics and Battery Management System. The project ultimately aimed to develop an innovative high energy density battery system for an emissions-free electric small city car.
Lithium Nickel Cobalt Manganese (NCM) is a variant of lithium-ion chemistry that has particularly high energy and power densities. Being built into large format high capacity cells allows packaging of the battery in a limited space and also provides high power output.