AI-supported system reduces development time and cost of EV battery pack manufacturing

UK-based EV battery pack technology startup IONETIC has unveiled a software-accelerated, AI-supported development system, Arc, that delivers multi-million dollar savings in battery pack development costs, and halves time-to-market for custom battery packs.

Arc cuts the typical ~$30Mn investment and four-year development cycle required for bespoke EV battery systems from tier 1 suppliers by automating design and integrating pre-validated components into a fully end-to-end battery pack development system. The Arc system allows IONETIC to rapidly deliver cost-effective, performance-optimized battery solutions that meet OEMs’ customer and commercial needs faster and with less risk.

James Eaton, CEO and co-founder of IONETIC, says: "As the push for electric vehicle adoption accelerates, OEMs need the right partners to bring competitive electrified vehicles to market as fast as possible. IONETIC’s fully end-to-end, in-house offering firmly establishes our position as a battery technology tier 1 at the forefront of innovation; our Arc system allows us to provide OEMs with pre-validated, tailored solutions – enabling them to remove inefficient development processes, focus on vehicle innovation, and eliminate the usual bottlenecks of cost and time. It’s our mission to help OEMs supercharge the electric transition in a way that is profitable and future proofed for the next era of mobility – a mission that our proprietary technology is primed to achieve.”

Battery pack development is one of the most time- and cost-intensive challenges in bringing an EV to market on schedule and at an affordable price point. OEMs needing between 100 and 10,000 battery packs a year are typically faced with a difficult choice: between expensive and time-consuming, highly bespoke battery packs; or low-performance off-the-shelf solutions – with neither option providing a compelling way for OEMs to launch electrified vehicles.

With 95% of the world’s OEMs producing low-volume bespoke platforms such as trucks, buses, and sports cars, IONETIC’s AI-supported, end-to-end approach allows EV OEMs to access high-performance custom battery packs without the usual costs and complexity.

Arc enables IONETIC to deliver batteries to OEMs that combine the best speed and affordability of off-the-shelf solutions with the flexibility and performance of bespoke designs – which reduces time, cost, and development challenges. The system achieves this by seamlessly integrating three elements: 

• Software: A network of AI-accelerated design tools which remove manual, iterative human design engineering. Instead, Arc rapidly optimizes, conceptualizes, and brings to life the battery pack’s design, facilitating significant time- and cost-reductions.
• Hardware: Arc is built around a pre-defined design system, including a number of pre-validated systems and components, all whilst supporting multiple different cell formats. This reduces both program risk and validation time, whilst remaining highly flexible.
• Fabrication: Rather than requiring large up-front investment and bespoke manufacturing lines, Arc utilizes an innovative, flexible manufacturing system. More akin to the approach taken by semiconductor fabricators, this allows IONETIC’s production facility to serve multiple different customers, without the time and costs typically required for new-line setup.