Echion Technologies, the world’s leading supplier of niobium-based anode materials, has secured £10m investment from Barclays Sustainable Impact Capital and existing investor BGF. This funding will enable Echion to accelerate the speed at which its network of partnered cell manufacturers is able to produce commercially available cells which utilise Echion’s innovative niobium-based XNO® anode material. It will also support Echion’s growth in key markets by providing additional resources to connect cell manufacturers with industrial original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). This will see XNO® utilised in more real-world applications, at volume, in the near future.
Echion’s XNO® niobium-based anode 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. XNO® has been specifically engineered to allow electrified heavy-duty industrial, commercial and mass-transport vehicles to operate with the highest productivity and lowest total cost of ownership.
XNO® is available at scale thanks to Echion’s manufacturing partnership with the world’s leading producer of niobium, CBMM. In November, Echion opened the world’s largest niobium-based anode production facility, capable of producing 2,000 t/year of XNO®, equivalent to 1 GWh of Li-ion cells. This will enable Echion to meet the significant demand for XNO® across its global customer base of cell manufacturers and OEMs.
Applications powered by XNO® include battery electric and hybrid trains, mining haul trucks, electric buses, heavy-duty industrial transport and delivery vehicles.
