Axeon and Ricardo collaborate on battery system for plug-in European car

British company Axeon and the international Ricardo group are firmly positioned amongst Europe’s foremost experts in electric vehicle propulsion technology. The plug-in hybrid vehicle, from an established European brand, will feature an advanced, bespoke Axeon battery system that leverages advanced Nanophosphate™ lithium ion cells from A123 Systems. The team is developing a world-class solution for this application, featuring an ultra-lightweight, liquid-cooled battery pack and a development of the Ricardo’s Battery Management System incorporating active cell balancing. Ricardo will engineer the pack including all aspects of the mechanical, electrical/electronic hardware and software, including thermal design considerations and safety. Axeon will subsequently assume full responsibility for a full test and validation programme, production and supply.

“It’s difficult to think of a more demanding application or client for our skills, so we were delighted to have been selected to play such a key role in this development programme” said Lawrence Berns, CEO of Axeon.

Berns added, “This car will transform thinking about hybrid cars in every area, especially performance. Our technology will play a key role, underlining our prowess in this competitive field and showing that hybrids can also offer significant advances to performance as well as environmental benefits”.

“This is an exciting project which builds upon Ricardo’s longstanding and highly successful relationship with Axeon which has already seen our companies collaborate on Technology Strategy Board part-funded research which has helped us jointly develop aspects of the technology to be deployed in this programme,” said Richard Wenham, Ricardo director of Intelligent Transport Systems.