Evida in £70m electric vehicle battery deal

EVIDA Power, the US battery pack firm which located its UK base in Coventry earlier this year, has announced a £70m partnership to develop volume production of wireless charging technology for electric vehicles.

The deal is with HaloIPT, a UK-based company co-founded by Arup last year. Halo is a leading developer of systems which allow cars to be charged using a wire-free magnetic inductive system rather than cables and plugs.
 
Under the agreement, Evida and HaloIPT will jointly undertake a study designed to explore the feasibility of making 40,000 induction power transfer systems over a five-year period. The goal is to develop a long-term venture for supplying the system as an option for a forthcoming electric car, for which sales are estimated to reach 70,000 units by 2015.

The strategic partnership brings together a team of experts from Evida and HaloIPT, who will evaluate the unit’s commercial viability and develop the system and its technology, as well as looking at the civil engineering implications of building the technology into the urban environment.

The technology was used by Rolls Royce within its Phantom Experimental EV – the 102EX. Rolls-Royce developed the test vehicle to explore alternatives to traditional internal combustion for the first time in the company’s 107-year history.
 
Jonathan Shine, Evida’s co-founder and VP of business development, said: “We are delighted to be collaborating with a world-renowned pioneer of revolutionary wireless charging systems. This will not only enable the sharing of complementary expertise, but will provide our business with a significant opportunity to extend our current product offering beyond the supply and integration of battery packs, and supply the very latest wireless technology to our client base.”

Dr Anthony Thomson, CEO of HaloIPT said: “Through our strategic partnership with Evida we will be able to expand production and move into high volume sales. We will be working closely with Evida to develop a solution which will give EV manufacturers a more convenient, efficient, user-friendly alternative to the existing plug-in charging infrastructure.”