For electric vehicle manufacturers, the choice between buying off-the-shelf battery packs or developing custom-designed solutions can mean the difference between spending millions unnecessarily and achieving desired performance. Reducing the time and risks associated with custom pack development is the name of the game for IONETIC, a start–up that aims to save automakers millions in costs.
The firm, a start-up originating at Imperial College London, recently opened its 100 MWh capacity pilot production facility that will be fully operational in 2025, creating 30 high-skill jobs. The plant will showcase the company’s development platform that combines design software, a hardware architecture and flexible battery pack manufacturing – of key value for smaller brands and niche vehicle makers who can now access battery packs optimised for their unique needs.
A multi-million pound endeavour
Manufacturers have traditionally had two options when it comes to developing battery packs – the collection of battery cells, or modules combined with control systems – that power electric vehicles IONETIC CEO and Co-Founder James Eaton reports. One is to buy an off-the-shelf product from a battery pack manufacturer that is not necessarily optimised for the vehicle’s needs, and the other is to develop a custom design.
The latter can “cost upwards of £30 million” and take four years or more to build, Eaton explains. “That makes sense if you’re a big OEM, but 95% of car makers are small companies.
| By the numbers | |
|---|---|
| £30 million | Cost of developing a custom electric vehicle battery pack |
| 80% | Reduction in time to market for battery packs using IONETIC’s Arc system |
| 245 Wh/kg | Energy density of battery packs supported by Arc |
| £5 million | Total planned investment in IONETIC’s Arc Fab Pilot manufacturing facility |
| 30 | High-skills jobs to be supported at the IONETIC pilot facility |
| 100 MWh | Capacity of IONETIC pilot facility |
The consequence of electrification is that all vehicle companies need custom battery packs to achieve the performance and lifespan they’re looking for, but most of these companies will have spent up to £50 million to engineer their entire vehicle. Then they’re being asked to spend £30 million on a battery pack. We looked at that and thought ‘that can’t be the way forward’.”
Eaton and his co-founders at Imperial had been advising car companies on battery technologies. In 2022, he was planning to leave the university to start his own consultancy firm, which was when the idea for IONETIC was born.
I called up car companies to ask them what their problems were, and I had the same conversation around custom battery packs about five times in two weeks. No one could afford them. So we set about building a technology to close the gap.”
IONETIC’s solution, Arc, is designed for small and niche vehicle makers, across high performance automotive, buses, HGVs or marine. It provides a set of battery design tools and hardware architectures that enables customers to access more than 100,000 battery pack configurations. Engineers can enter the performance parameters they require for their pack and are presented with a range of potential solutions that they can iterate into a final design.
An exploded view of a battery pack.
Through this automated process, designs that would have previously taken a team of engineers months to produce can be ready in a matter of days. IONETIC can then manufacture the battery packs on a unique, flexible, production line located at the company’s Arc Fab Pilot manufacturing facility in Northamptonshire. The £5 million facility also serves as the company’s headquarters. It is equipped with advanced manufacturing technology including a flexible, robotic, laser welding machine, believed to be one of only a few of its kind available for use in Europe, and is designed to showcase IONETIC’s capabilities.
James Eaton, CEO and Co-Founder of IONETIC (left) with Andy Palmer, Chairman of IONETIC (and former COO of Nissan/CEO of Aston Martin) outside the IONETIC Arc Fab Pilot Facility.
The company believes it can cut time-to-market for a new battery pack by up to 80% with significant cost savings.
Building the BESTBUS
IONETIC has been supported by the Faraday Institution and Innovate UK as part of the Faraday Battery Challenge at multiple steps of its journey to bring Arc to life.
