A UK consortium is redesigning the inside of a lithium-ion battery to make electric vehicles cheaper and faster to produce, using 3D metal scaffolds and robotic coating lines. The UK has banned new petrol and diesel car sales by 2030, but its battery supply chain lags behind global competitors. Current battery cells are too expensive to manufacture and take too long to scale from lab to factory. This project tackles that bottleneck by replacing flat metal current collectors—the foil that carries electricity out of the electrode—with porous 3D structures that pack more active material into the same volume. The team will also use AI to design custom electrode formulations and automate the coating process with robots. If successful, the technology will be a “drop-in” solution for existing gigafactories, requiring minimal disruption to switch over. That could cut manufacturing costs, reduce the time needed to ramp up production, and lower the total cost of owning an EV. The project aims to bring the technology to Technology Readiness Level 7—meaning a prototype demonstrated in an operational environment—and then commercialise it directly in the UK and abroad.
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With the UK's aim to ban combustion-engine sales by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, the UK urgently needs highly innovative solutions to meet these targets. It also needs to maintain competitiveness in a global EV market expected to reach $68bn in 2022\. Project CONSTELLATION is aimed at improving the performance of EV battery cells, by bringing together the expertise of strategically important UK partners (Addionics, James Durrans, Centre for Process Innovation, Warwick Manufacturing Group) to improve the competitiveness of the UK battery supply chain and take technology already developed to TRL7, ready towards full commercialisation. Key objectives for this project include developing new verticals in cell manufacture through improvements to the manufacturing efficiency, performance and environmental profile of cells optimised for the automotive market. These will be achieved through improvements in novel current collectors designed by the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the formulation of customised electrodes in lithium-ion batteries using coating that can be robotically automated. New verticals will help reduce the time for scaling cell production resulting in lower costs for manufacturing and cost of ownership for the end-user. The project will utilise technology developed by Addionics for 3D current collector fabrication that has shown significant battery performance improvements. It will build on the earlier success of InnovateUK-funded project STELLAR to now take the work to TRL7\. Project CONSTELLATION will demonstrate minimal disruption to existing Gigafactories as it represents a 'drop-in' solution whereby affordable electrodes can be supplied to a variety of facilities. The output of the project will be commercialised directly in the UK and beyond.
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