News

OXIS Energy Battery Systems Headed for China

June 08, 2016 by Jeff Shepard

OXIS Energy UK and LiTHIUM BALANCE A/S of Denmark have come together to build the first-ever prototype Lithium Sulfur E-scooter battery system primarily for the Chinese market. LiTHIUM BALANCE is a battery management expert who has supplied its BMS systems for Lithium-Ion based E-scooters for a decade. The E-scooter itself will be manufactured in China. The volume of E-scooters in China is 30 million, of which 98% use lead acid with the remaining 2% using Lithium-Ion.

The current prototype battery has a capacity of 1.2kWh using 10Ah OXISLong Life cells, weighs 60% less than the current lead acid battery and a significant increase in range. The next stage is to build a 2nd prototype using an improved Long Life chemistry (up to 20Ah) which will increase battery capacity at a reduced weight. Crucially, production costs will be reduced to meet the demand of the Chinese market. The timescale for this second phase is 4th quarter of 2016.

According to the CEO of OXIS, Huw Hampson-Jones, "The development of the 1st Lithium Sulfur E-scooter battery system will allow Chinese manufacturers to circumvent the use of unsafe, toxic and environmentally damaging battery systems such as lead acid and Lithium-Ion. It will allow Chinese consumers to travel longer distances with a significantly greater degree of safety and flexibility and with a battery system that's 60% lighter - the latter being very important to Chinese commuters living in high rise city apartments. In effect, the market of rechargeable lithium batteries will undergo a quantum leap forward in the adoption of state of the art renewable energy technology. This will contribute to cleaner air quality in the major urban areas of China."

LiTHIUM BALANCE CEO, Lars Barkler added, "This project represents a technology breakthrough for LiTHIUM BALANCE. In cooperation with OXIS Energy we have implemented dedicated BMS algorithms that optimizes the performance of Lithium Sulfur batteries. This could not be achieved with an ordinary Lithium-Ion BMS."

OXIS and LiTHIUM BALANCE are on track to have their battery systems in China by Spring of 2018. This reflects the results of an existing GBP2m investment made by OXIS into new processes and production machinery in preparation for mass production of Lithium sulfur cell technology.