Solithor sets up solid-state battery centre in Belgium
Battery developer Solithor wants to locate its European competence centre for solid-state batteries in Belgium. For this purpose, the company has signed a ten-year contract with Punch Powertrain to gain access to a 3,000m² factory site in Sint-Truiden.
Before the end of next year, Solithor – in its own spelling SOLiTHOR to emphasise both the “Sol” for solid and “Li” for lithium) plans to start pre-production of its solid-state technology. Occupation of the space is already planned for January 2023. For the testing and production space, Solithor has commissioned specialists Munters to build a 400-square-metre drying room. The order is worth “several million euros”.
Within three years, the company wants to expand its production to the point where entire battery modules and systems can be built there as a proof-of-concept as well as “prototype batteries for manufacturers of electric vehicles and the aviation sector”.
“SOLiTHOR can now move swiftly to upscale the production and manufacture of our solid-state lithium batteries with the support of our investors,” says founder and CEO Huw Hampson-Jones. ” It means moving forward towards the commercialisation of our cell and battery systems technology. This is a significant step forward not only for Belgium, but for Europe as a whole and means being less dependent on Asia or the United States.”
Punch Powertrain is a Belgian transmission manufacturer that also develops and manufactures transmissions for hybrid vehicles together with Stellantis, among others.
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