Ilika’s Goliath battery testing validation from partners - ICYMI

Ilika PLC has announced a key development in its Goliath solid-state battery programme, reporting that its 2Ah P1 prototype cells have completed external testing with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and tier one suppliers.

These evaluations produced positive outcomes, reinforcing the validity of the company’s design and performance targets.

The testing process included a range of evaluations tailored by each commercial partner to reflect their specific application needs.

Ilika reported that the prototypes passed several critical benchmarks. 

Ilika PLC CEO Graeme Purdy joined Proactive to discuss matters. 

Proactive:
Graeme, very good to speak with you. You've announced more progress with your Goliath roadmap. Positive testing results from OEM and tier one testing partners. Tell us more.

Graeme Purdy:
Yeah. You know, great piece of news. Really completing the circle. People who've been following us since May last year will know that we started testing our first set of prototypes – our P1 prototype cells, our 2Ah cells – on behalf of commercial partners. Then we shipped some later in the summer to other partners.

It takes a few months for them to carry out those tests. They've all got their proprietary test protocols that they use. The reason that they're proprietary is that they’re often tailored for the specific applications that those OEMs are addressing. So, it’s not the case that there's one set of test protocols that everybody in the industry uses. There’s actually quite a lot of know-how that goes into the test routines.

But yeah, we're getting very positive feedback that the prototypes do what they say on the tin. And that’s the key thing in this industry – you have to deliver what you say the specification of the product is.

Proactive:
So what does it say on the tin, Graeme? What sort of tests did the P1 prototype pass?

Graeme Purdy:
Well, first of all, they have to confirm that the cells have formed properly. And you can do that electrochemically. What we mean by that is that when you first make one of these EV batteries, actually, you need to sort of burn it in; you know, you need to cycle it a few times for it to perform properly. Otherwise you get a variation in performance.

So the first test really just confirmed that that had been done properly. And then you start measuring some of the characteristics like energy capacity, how quickly it can charge to that capacity, its ability to discharge that energy. So that’s power delivery – how quickly you can pull the energy out of the battery.

And then you do some cyclability tests, looking at different rates of charge and discharge in order to confirm how that affects the capacity of the battery through its duty cycle and through its lifetime.

Proactive:
So Graeme, your confidence levels as you progress towards a minimum viable product?

Graeme Purdy:
Well, increasing by the day. It’s fantastic that we've got this validation back from our partners. I think that’s given the team here some comfort that we’re on the right track. Should give our investors some comfort as well.

By the same token, the next things to look forward to, of course, are the 10Ah prototypes that we've been signposting. We’ve already got some initial data from those prototypes. They are going through a series of test protocols at the minute that we’re doing in-house. Because, of course, we don’t want any surprises from our customers; we really want to know what the answer is before we send the cells out for them to be tested. So we’re executing that test program at the minute.

Proactive:
Graeme, I hope you'll keep us updated on progress with that. Thank you very much for speaking with us today.