Ilika, Comau complete scale-up study for All-Solid-State Battery Technology and future production for EV manufacturers

Ilika Technologies Ltd, pioneers in ASSB technology for electric vehicles, and Comau - part of Stellantis - global leader in industrial automation at the forefront of development of solid-state battery technology, successfully completed a 1-year UK Government-funded study into the machines and processes required to manufacture oxide electrolyte-based solid state technology at an approximate scale of 100 MWh per year.

Comau supported Ilika in developing both a lab scale and industrial manufacturing process with a specific focus in utilizing existing technologies and machines, already available, that require small customization and reduced investment for the customers. Comau developed some concepts of processes and machines to be industrialized in a second phase of the project.

The study identified most all-solid-state cell production steps can be achieved on standard or lightly customized machines equipment used in conventional liquid electrolyte-based lithium-ion batteries production and other markets. The study identified process steps where specific ASSB machine development is required.

Comau and Ilika collaborated with their respective knowledge of products and processes over the course of the project. The study phase was finalized, and the companies defined a flexible roadmap to achieve the target outlined in the Ilika’s perspectives, towards mass production levels. Comau will support Ilika in the future with all aspects intended to develop in battery industrialization.

Ilika’s production scale-up will be in three stages. The first step, currently underway, will be to scale to 2 MWh per year by the end of 2023: this will be achieved by enlarging its current facility in Hampshire, UK, using funds from a 2021 raise. The Ilika-Comau funded-study focused on an100 MWh-level capability and the continuation of this work between the two companies will feed into Ilika’s second scale-up step. The third step, at GWh or “Gigascale”, will take place once the 100 MWh facility has been exercised.

Ilika’s Goliath ASSB technology for electric vehicles has the potential to improve pack-level energy and power density, enabling fast charging below 20 minutes and operation to higher temperatures than conventional lithium-ion batteries.

“This project represented an integral part of the Comau Journey in Electrification, developed with a joint team of the internal Battery Cells Global Competence Center, in Turin, and Comau UK,” says John Coombes, Managing Director of Comau UK. “We are proud of the collaboration we have had with Ilika and the APC, and also the ability to demonstrate the value our capabilities can contribute in this field.”

"This project has successfully validated Ilika’s scale-up plans for its Goliath technology, highlighting some important cost-saving benefits at higher volume production levels which pave the way to gigawatt scale manufacturing,” says Graeme Purdy, Ilika CEO. “Working with Comau, one of the world's leading designers of innovative engineering solutions, has delivered a robust plan to scale-up Ilika’s manufacturing capability for Goliath solid state batteries to the next level."