RCS - Mpac Group PLC - SiSTEM pilot battery assembly line

MPACAnnouncement

26/04/2024 07:45

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20240426:nRSZ1845Ma&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 1845M  Mpac Group PLC  26 April 2024

26 April 2024

Mpac Group plc

("Mpac")

 

Award of £1.2m order for a 1.5MWh solid state battery assembly line

 

Mpac Group plc (AIM: MPAC), a global leader in engineering and automation
providing assembly and packaging solutions, announces that it has received a
£1.2m order to deliver a SiSTEM pilot battery assembly line secured by
funding from the Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF), partnered with Ilika,
Agratas and The UK Battery Industrialisation Centre ("UKBIC").

 

Mpac will work closely with Ilika plc and the UKBIC to design, build and
commission a 1.5MWh solid state battery ('SSB') assembly line capable of
delivering Ilika's Goliath SSB prototype large-format pouch cells to
automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. The project now has the additional
support of Agratas who will play a pivotal role using their manufacturing
expertise to inform the design of the SSB stacking and assembly equipment and
to identify additional processes to be incorporated into its standard
Lithium-ion Batteries (LIB) line to enable the production of SSB's. This
collaboration with UK institutions, battery innovators and high-volume
manufacturers highlights the value that Mpac provides to the industry and
further cements its ambitions within the sector. The SSB assembly line is
expected to be fully operational at Ilika's facility by the end of Q2 2025.

 

This project provides further growth within the Clean Energy sector for Mpac,
utilising its expertise in assembly across multiple market sectors to provide
innovative solutions for battery cell manufacturing.

 

The ATF is a funding programme created to support large-scale
industrialisation accessed through the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) and
delivered in collaboration with the Department for Business and Trade (DBT)
and Innovate UK. Up to £850 million of funding will be invested in developing
a high-value end-to-end electrified automotive supply chain in the UK. The
fund is highlighted as an important mechanism to reach targets in the UK
Government's 10-Point Plan for a green industrial revolution and its Transport
Decarbonisation Plan.

 

Adam Holland, Chief Executive Officer at Mpac Group plc said:

 

''We are delighted to be participating in The Automotive Transformation Fund
project in partnership with Ilika, the UKBIC and Agratas, following the award
of the prestigious APC grant for our SiSTEM pilot battery assemble line.
Mpac is a market leader in complex automation, and we are keen to apply our
expertise to develop cutting-edge solutions for scaling up the assembly of
innovative battery cells. This project demonstrates our commitment to
technological advancement and aligns with the UK government's vision for a
cleaner and more sustainable world''.

 

Graeme Purdy, Ilika CEO, stated:

 

"Our collaboration with Mpac in SiSTEM will see the development of a scaled
SSB assembly line which will be capable of delivering Ilika's A-sample
automotive pouch cells for testing in 2025. This is an important step in
Ilika's roadmap, enabling us to engage closer with OEMs as we start to deliver
SSB cells into their test programmes. We are delighted to welcome Agratas to
the SiSTEM project. With their plans to build a UK gigafactory, Agratas will
bring significant expertise to the programme and we look forward to a long and
fruitful relationship"

 

Valentina Gentili, Vice-President Global R&D at Agratas, said,

 

"We at Agratas are excited to be joining the ATF funded SiSTEM project. It
will accelerate our learning on the production of solid-state batteries and
enhance our relationships with key organisations in the UK battery industry.
The project is well aligned to our mission of pioneering power for future
generations, and we believe that solid state is a very promising future
battery technology".

 

Sean Gilgunn, Managing Director of UKBIC said:

"It's fantastic that Agratas has joined the SiSTEM project, which will see a
1.5MWh solid-state battery ('SSB') assembly line capable of delivering Ilika's
Goliath SSB prototype large-format pouch cells being built in this project.
The Automotive Transformation Fund ('ATF') funded project is a partnership
between Ilika, MPAC, UKBIC and Agratas, which complements the Government's
vision for Net Zero."

 

About UKBIC - UKBIC is the UK's national battery manufacturing facility
providing manufacturing scale-up and skills for the battery sector.

 

Ian Constance, Chief Executive Officer at Advanced Propulsion Centre UK said,
"Industrialisation of solid state batteries is one of our current defining
challenges. This partnership and project supported by the Automotive
Transformation Fund's Scale up Readiness Validation (SURV) programme could
lead to a significant step forward in the roll out of solid state batteries
and investment in advanced manufacturing in the UK. The strength and depth of
this consortium demonstrates the leading-edge nature of the UK's position in
battery technology that is key to driving a net zero future for the automotive
sector and road transport."

For further information, please contact:

 

 Mpac Group plc                                  Tel: +44(0)24 7642 1100

 Adam Holland, Chief Executive

 Will Wilkins, Group Finance Director
 Shore Capital (Nominated Adviser & Broker)      Tel: +44(0)20 7408 4050

 Advisory

 Patrick Castle

 Iain Sexton

 Broking

 Henry Willcocks

 Liberum (Joint Broker)                          Tel: +44 (0) 20 3100 2000

 Edward Mansfield

 Will King

 Anake Singh

 Hudson Sandler                                  Tel: +44 (0) 20 7796 4133

 Nick Lyon

 Nick Moore

 

 

 

About Mpac Group plc

 

Mpac designs, builds and supports the machines that assemble and package the
products that millions of people around the world depend on.  Headquartered
in the UK and have strategically located manufacturing and service locations
to provide customers with local support and a global reach.  Mpac is listed
on AIM, a market of the London Stock Exchange, under the trading symbol
'MPAC'.

 

About Ilika plc - https://www.ilika.com (https://www.ilika.com/)

Ilika specialises in the developing and commercialisation of solid state
batteries. The company's mission is to rapidly develop leading-edge
IP, manufacture and license solid state batteries for markets that cannot be
addressed with conventional batteries due to their safety, charge rates,
energy density and life limits. The company achieves this by using
ceramic-based lithium-ion technology that is inherently safe in manufacture
and usage, higher thermal tolerance and easier to recycle which
differentiates our products from existing batteries.

 

About Agratas

 

Agratas is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons. They design, develop and
manufacture high-quality, high-performance, sustainable batteries applied to
multiple use cases in the mobility and energy sectors, to match customers'
requirements. Agratas are driven by the pursuit of green growth and
technological progress. Their key focus is to develop next-generation battery
technologies at new R&D Innovation Hubs in India and the UK, collaborating
with world-leading universities, research institutions and strategic partners.

 

About UKBIC

 

The UKBIC facility, based in Coventry, UK, provides the missing link between
battery technology which has proved promising at laboratory or prototype scale
and successful mass production. The UKBIC will build on the work carried out
in the completed BUS100 programme by undertaking physical trials to produce
Ilika's SSB electrodes at GWh scale.

This information is provided by Reach, the non-regulatory press release distribution service of RNS, part of the London Stock Exchange. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  NRAPPUCWCUPCUQQ