Ilika PLC (AIM:IKA, OTCQX:ILIKF) this week announced progress on its Goliath solid-state battery program, marking the D6 milestone, and chief executive Graeme Purdy joined the Proactive studio speaking with Stephen Gunnion.
The battery-developer confirmed that it successfully built and tested 10Ah power cells – these are larger and are intended for supply to electric vehicle (EV) battery pack designers.
It scaled up from the 2Ah prototypes released earlier in the year, ensuring the essential characteristics and performance of the cells were retained.
Here, we take another look at what Graeme Purdy had to say.
Proactive: Graeme, very good to speak with you, and you've reached another milestone with your Goliath batteries, the D6 milestone. Tell us more about that.
Graeme Purdy: Hi, Stephen. They're coming thick and fast at the moment, aren't they? It doesn't seem that long ago we were talking about our D5 milestone. The D6 milestone is really exciting for us because it’s the first time we’ve built and tested 10Ah power cells.
These cells are larger than some of our solid-state competitors’ cells and are becoming very relevant for pack designers incorporating solid-state cells into EV battery packs.
Proactive: So what would you then do with these D6 batteries? Will you be taking them to potential customers?
Graeme Purdy: The D6 milestone is an internal testing milestone. It's meant to generate enough data to reassure ourselves that we’re on the right track. By scaling up the battery design from the smaller 2Ah prototypes we released earlier in the summer, we’ve confirmed that we’ve retained the expected essential characteristics and performance.
Next, we’ll move to the D7 design freeze milestone mentioned in our press release.
This involves a 10Ah cell frozen at a specific point in the development cycle, allowing us to produce a batch of prototypes to share with customers and partners for technology validation.
Proactive: We discussed the safety data for the D5 prototypes, which you announced last month. Will you be applying the same safety tests to the D6 and, ultimately, the D7?
Graeme Purdy: Absolutely. Now that we've achieved leading-edge safety performance, we want to consolidate and retain those parameters within the D7’s design features. These parameters will also serve as the foundation for our next-generation prototypes, the P1.5.
Proactive: Could you lay out your 2025 development roadmap for us?
Graeme Purdy: It’s going to be an exciting year.
We’ve got the D7 design freeze planned for Q1, followed by sending out the P1.5 prototypes in Q2.
Toward the middle of the year, we’ll work on these, culminating in a minimum viable product (MVP) called the P2 prototype by year-end. This will be a 50Ah power pouch, significantly larger than the P1.5, representing a substantial step forward.
Proactive: Well, Graeme, I’m sure we’ll be chatting a lot more as you go down that road. Thank you very much for updating us.
Graeme Purdy: It’s been a pleasure. Hopefully, we’ll speak soon.