The news comes as it announced the appointment of Dr. Ulrich Ehmes as CEO. With a long track record of industrialising battery production Dr. Ehmes will lead the commercialisation of Theion’s lithium-sulphur cathode technology, which is targeting triple the range and usage time compared to conventional lithium-ion cells.
Sulphur - a material available In abundance without harmful mining - replaces cathode materials with high processing cost and high metal content like nickel and cobalt. Not only is it 99% cheaper to source than the cathode materials, but Theion’s battery cells also require 90% less energy to produce – from raw material to finished cell.
Theion will leverage his decade-long experience in the battery manufacturing sector to scale production.
“I joined Theion because I am convinced that selecting the right battery active materials and processing these materials in a way that best leverages the material’s storage property, will disrupt the battery industry to another level,” said Dr. Ehmes. “With 16 patents pending, our process innovations are scalable, and will bring a new dimension of mobility, range, usage time and sustainability.”
Theion’s production process extends the cycle life of batteries by combining sulphur’s crystal material properties with carbon nanotubes and a proprietary solid electrolyte. The company will be shipping material later this year, firstly to aerospace customers, as part of the qualification stage, then aircraft, air taxis, drones, mobile phones and laptops, before servicing the electric flight and automotive sectors in 2024.
Theion is backed by Lukasz Gadowski, CEO of Team Global, a technology holding company investing in and starting frontier technology companies.
“At a time when industry demand for batteries is surging, but materials cost and sustainable sourcing are experiencing volatility, Theion’s breakthrough is ideally timed,” said Lukasz Gadowski, founder and CEO of Team Global. “Theion’s Crystal Battery is perfect for all mobility applications, while being massively sustainable, and is targeting to extend the use time of handheld devices, the driving range of electric cars, and the safe flight time of eVTOL applications and electric aircraft by a factor of three. When in full production, it has the potential to replace every battery in every mobility device on earth.”
Headquartered in Berlin, Theion operates three locations within the city, specialising in cell design, prototyping and testing. The company is expanding by adding manufacturing facilities to accelerate its mass production roadmap, beginning in Berlin.
Locations for later Giga-Factories are not determined yet, but will be located close to its customers and the company is considering production sites in Europe, Asia and the USA.
