Their battery technology could electrify heavy vehicles. Now Echion gets £12m investment boost

Going electric is still a massive challenge for makers of heavy-duty industrial vehicles.

Echion Technologies, based outside Cambridge, is hoping to be part of the solution. The company has developed a niobium-based anode material that enables faster charging of high-density lithium-ion batteries that are especially well suited to heavy transport vehicles.

The company will now use the latest round of investment to accelerate the ability of its partners to produce commercially available battery cells using its patented XNO material and create more real-world applications “in the near future.”

"Their investment will enable us to take the next major step forward in our fast-moving company journey", said Echion co-founder and CEO Jean de La Verpilliere.

The latest round of funding includes investment from Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital and existing investor BGF and comes after the company received a £29m injection in July.

Better than graphite

The UK has committed to becoming the first country in the world to phase out non-zero emission heavy-goods vehicles by 2040, but electrifying commercial HGV fleets is a massive challenge due to high costs and technical obstacles.

Co-founders Jean de La Verpilliere and Alex Groombridge started Echion as a spinout from Cambridge University. According to the company, its XNO material has a lower environmental impact than graphite, which is currently the most common anode material used in battery cells, while also enabling faster charging times.

"With our unique technology, we’re coming in to electrify those heavy industrial use cases that can’t be electrified today,” says Alex Groombridge. “Innovation for us means being disruptive, bringing in new technology in a quick way to a market that is not quick enough in doing so."

Steven Poulter, Head of Principal Structuring and Investments at Barclays, said the technology could help overcome the affordability challenges that have so far prevented heavy-duty transport fleets from going electric.

BGF first invested in Echion in 2021 and said the company’s innovative technology and commitment to sustainability “aligns perfectly with our values and investment strategy.”

"We believe that Echion's cutting-edge XNO technology is set to play a key role in electrifying and decarbonising heavy transport", said Dennis Atkinson, investor at BGF.

Echion says its XNO material enables lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries to safely fast charge in less than ten minutes, maintain high energy densities even at extreme temperatures, and deliver high power across a cycle life of more than 10,000 cycles.

Earlier this month, Echion opened a new plant in Araxa, Brazil, that it said was the largest niobium-based anode production facility in the world in order to mass-produce XNO at scale.