Battery Show: New battery manufacturing and development in County Durham

“The Battery Technology Centre will add engineering and service capabilities as the company begins its first projects, developing and prototyping for e-mobility customers,” according to the company. “The 1,850m² [20,000ft²] centre complements the company’s existing facilities in Peterlee, which include a battery assembly unit, a warehouse for holding buffer stocks of components for custom packs, a design engineering laboratory and staff training suites.”

The unit’s production hall will be configured for high-voltage multi-kWh battery packs in volumes up to ~1,000 pieces/year. The intended market is e-motor bikes and off-road, commercial and marine vehicles, plus pilot runs of batteries for on-highway vehicles.

Also in there are 12 development and engineering laboratories, five of which have a 64A three-phase supply for testing and validation of lithium batteries up to multi-kWh systems. Test capabilities include cycling, environmental testing, lifetime testing and compliance testing.

As these labs will handle large high-voltage batteries, secure access to safety-critical equipment is supported by external monitoring and control, said Alexander.

Regarding production, higher volume requirements will be met by a forthcoming EU-based production centre planned to open before 2026.

Existing assembly lines on the campus can already run multiple high volume streams of packs up to 60V, plus of modules for assembly into larger packs.

“Under a shift pattern, production capacity is up to 100,000 pieces per week for such packs and modules,” according to Alexander.

Alexander Battery Technologies is at the Battery Show in Stuttgart today, running virtual tours of its facility – stand 8-F23.