Ilika is developing its Goliath solid-state battery technology to address a central problem in electric vehicles: battery packs need to deliver high energy density without adding excessive weight for cooling, thermal management and mechanical protection. The issue is not just how much energy a battery cell can store, it is how efficiently those cells can be built into a complete battery pack.
Battery packs are made up of cells, modules and supporting structures. Cooling systems, thermal controls and protective components improve safety, but they also add weight and volume. That reduces the proportion of the finished pack made up of energy-storing cells.
Ilika measures this through the cell-to-pack ratio, or CTPR. The calculation compares the weight of the cells with the total weight of the pack. A higher ratio means more of the battery pack is made up of cells and less is taken up by supporting hardware.
Conventional battery chemistries involve a trade-off. High-nickel NMC lithium-ion cells offer high cell-level energy density, but their safety requirements can increase the amount of protection needed around them. That lowers the cell-to-pack ratio. LFP cells offer stronger safety characteristics and can support a higher cell-to-pack ratio, but they have lower cell-level energy density.
Goliath is being developed to combine the main advantages of both.
The cells use a high-nickel NMC cathode material to provide high cell-level energy density. They also use a non-flammable solid electrolyte designed to improve safety.
That combination is important at pack level. Ilika’s aim is to reduce the amount of cooling equipment and mechanical protection required around the cells. Fewer supporting components would allow more of the overall battery pack to consist of active cells. The result could be a lighter and more efficient battery pack without sacrificing energy density.
Ilika plc (LON:IKA) is a pioneer in solid state battery technology enabling solutions for applications in Industrial IoT, MedTech, Electric Vehicles and Consumer Electronics.
