Ilika PLC (AIM:IKA, OTCQX:ILIKF) CEO Graeme Purdy tells Proactive's Stephen Gunnion that Agratas, Tata Group’s battery business, has joined the SiSTEM project which aims to build a 1.5MWh solid-state battery (SSB) assembly line.
Purdy noted that SiSTEM was awarded a £2.7 million grant from the Advanced Propulsion Centre as part of the Automotive Transformation Fund. This grant supports the collaboration with UK Battery Industrialisation Centre (UK BIC) and Mpac Group (LSE:MPAC) plc to develop a 1.5MW hour solid-state battery assembly line.
The line will produce large format pouch cells for electric vehicles (EVs), with scale-up trials to occur at UK BIC using industry-ready equipment. Agratas' participation is primarily to evaluate and design a concept facility for implementing solid-state battery manufacturing at Gigafactory scale.
Purdy views this collaboration as a significant validation of Ilika’s technology, demonstrating commercial interest in their capabilities. Additionally, a 12-month bilateral collaboration with Agratas will focus on developing a D8 prototype, a minimum viable product that will test the scalability and performance of the battery technology.