Gelion (AIM:GELN) announced it has entered a co-funded Proof of Concept Agreement with a top-five global automotive original equipment manufacturer to test and evaluate its Nano-Encapsulated Sulfur (NES™) cathode active material under conditions relevant to EV battery applications.
The London-listed sulfur battery developer said the OEM partner will supply engineering expertise, advanced battery testing facilities and a contribution to programme funding, while Gelion runs complementary testing to correlate performance data throughout.
It marks the first co-funded evaluation by a global automotive OEM of battery cells built with Gelion's NES™ cathode paired with a graphitic anode.
The deal follows a separate Materials Testing Agreement with a top-15 global automotive player, announced the week before, under which Gelion is supplying cathode active material, coated cathodes and liquid electrolyte for evaluation across liquid and solid-electrolyte EV battery configurations.
Gelion is also running a three-year programme with Nissan Technical Centre Europe and the University of Oxford, started in June, to integrate NES™ into solid-state lithium-sulfur EV batteries, backed by £2.4 million of Innovate UK grant funding.
"This agreement with a top 5 global automotive manufacturer marks a major milestone in the validation of our NES™ cathode material," said chief executive Matt Wood, adding that pairing Gelion's materials expertise with the OEM's engineering capability and testing facilities offers "an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the performance and manufacturability potential of our material for demanding automotive applications."
Gelion positions NES™ as a drop-in replacement for critical minerals such as nickel and cobalt in conventional lithium-ion cathodes, using abundant sulfur that it says is compatible with existing manufacturing lines without major re-tooling.
Successful completion of the new pilot programme would mark a further step in automotive industry validation of the NES™ material, Gelion said.