KULR Technology Group, a developer of battery safety and thermal management technologies, is buying 75MWh of batteries from a subsidiary of Taiwan Cement Corporation (TCC).
KULR is procuring the lithium-ion battery cell capacity from TCC’s E-One Moli Energy Corporation subsidiary (Molicel), which it will combine with its own safety technology to design and build battery applications with “the highest safety ratings”, it said.
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California-based KULR has a patented carbon fibre thermal management technology which uses a Passive Propagation Resistant (PPR) solution to act as a shield against thermal runaway in batteries.
The strategic relationship between the two could see KULR purchase over 700MWh of battery energy capacity from Molicel in the long-run, as part of its efforts to localise the supply chain to North America.
KULR CEO Michael Mo said: “This collaboration ensures that KULR has access to world-class Li-ion battery capacity – an increasingly scarce resource given today’s global supply chain challenges. As a total battery safety platform solution provider, we will incorporate our core technologies into battery pack design, testing and production to create the safest batteries for high value applications.”
“This is an inflection point for KULR as it positions our thermal safety solutions platform to become better entrenched in the marketplace, ultimately providing us with an opportunity to optimise logistics and to more effectively capture full value for our shareholders. As we described earlier this year, we plan to continue investing in the localisation of our production and supply chain to North America.”
“Securing this Molicel battery cell supply accelerates our ability to provide total solutions to high value customer applications with revenue potential that could exceed $350 million.”
KULR tripled revenue in 2021 to US$2.4 million.
Molicel said it is focused on developing its high-power cylindrical cell segment to be a top tier global supplier. It claims to be the first organisation in the world to produce high-power lithium-ion cells for high discharge rate applications, and it supplied the first NASA Spacesuit Li-Ion battery on the STS-133 mission back in 2011.
KULR has also provided its tech to NASA for its space missions, including the Mars Perseverance Rover, launched in 2020.
Molicel is one of several energy storage-focused subsidiaries of TCC. The company acquired NHOA (formerly Engie EPS), which provides energy storage and electric mobility solutions, and has its own ESS solution segment, TCC Energy Storage.