VoltaXplore announces commissioning of demonstration facility for graphene-enhanced batteries

VoltaXplore, a 50/50 joint venture between Martinrea International and NanoXplore aimed at commercializing the production of graphene-enhanced lithium-ion batteries for the electric vehicle market, recently announced the commissioning of its one megawatt-hour demonstration facility in Montreal, Quebec.

The facility is producing batteries, which are currently being optimized. The company expects graphene-enhanced batteries will have several advantages over existing products in the market today, such as greater capacity, increased battery life, faster charging speeds, and improved safety. Tests aimed at validating these benefits are ongoing, with reportedly encouraging results to date.

VoltaXplore is making great progress and is on track toward meeting its expected milestones, said Pat D’Eramo, Chairman of VoltaXplore and President and CEO of Martinrea. We remain excited about the venture, as we believe graphene-enhanced batteries have the potential to be a differentiated technology that could go a long way in addressing concerns around range and safety currently preventing more wide-scale adoption of electric vehicles. From Martinrea’s perspective, combining our advanced lightweighting technologies with graphene-enhanced batteries is a big step forward in the EV space.

I am delighted we joined a small group of companies in North America that are producing Li-ion batteries, said Soroush Nazarpour, President and CEO of VoltaXplore and NanoXplore. Our focus is to integrate the supply chain of batteries in North America, which is of great interest to customers of batteries. Now that the facility is commissioned on-time and on-budget with satisfactory battery performance results, we are moving forward on optimizing our battery design for the electric vehicle market through testing with customers.