The world’s leading supplier of niobium-based anode materials, Echion Technologies (Echion), and heavy-duty battery and electric vehicle engineering services provider, Switch Technologies (Switch), have unveiled the world’s first operational vehicle to be powered by Echion’s proprietary ultra-fast charging XNO® active anode material technology. The vehicle, which is a parallel-hybrid Toyota Land Cruiser 79 Series, participated in a live track demonstration at the Australian Automation and Robotics Precinct (AARP) in Perth, Australia on 3 December.
The Land Cruiser is equipped with cells manufactured by Li-FUN, an XNO® cell development partner. XNO® enables lithium-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. The material has been specially engineered to enable electrified heavy-duty vehicles, such as the Land Cruiser, to operate with the highest productivity and lowest total cost of ownership.
Echion and Switch have collaborated across a nine-month period, captured in a YouTube documentary series, to develop new XNO® battery modules and packs to hybridise the Land Cruiser, which is a commonly used workhorse vehicle for Australian mining operations. Echion and Switch are now beginning a comprehensive test and validation programme to further highlight the benefits that XNO® anode materials bring for batteries used in heavy-duty industries.
Echion’s XNO® anode material is available at scale, today, thanks to Echion’s longstanding partnership with the global leader in the production niobium products, CBMM. Earlier this year, the two companies opened the world’s largest niobium anode manufacturing facility, dedicated to produce up to 2000 tonnes per year of XNO®; the equivalent of 1 GWh of lithium-ion cells.
Find out more about Echion’s leading XNO® technology at: https://echiontech.com/
For more information, please contact David Hartley, [email protected] or 01223 421835.
Image caption: The Echion team with the world’s first operational vehicle to be powered by XNO®.
About Echion Technologies Echion Technologies LTD (Cambridge, UK) supplies its world-leading niobium-based anode material, XNO®, to cell manufacturers looking to build lithium-ion batteries with market-leading safety, cycle-life, and fast-charging capabilities. Powered by XNO® means lithium-ion batteries that can ultra-fast charge safely, maintain high energy densities even at low temperatures, and deliver high power across a cycle life of more than 10,000 cycles. Echion outsources the production of its XNO® material powders to trusted manufacturing partners and to ensure both quality and scale.
The differentiated performance enabled by XNO® helps cell manufacturers gain a technical and commercial advantage in high-value, fast-growing markets where end-users require the highest safety, lowest total cost of ownership, and highest productivity. This includes industrial and commercial e-mobility markets such as rail, marine, mining and other off-highway vehicles, opportunity-charging e-buses and material handling equipment.
