The UK Startup Aiming to "Supercharge the Electric Transition" - IONETIC's CEO, James Eaton

IONETIC is a UK-based EV battery pack technology startup. Founded in 2022, it's aim is to deliver multi-million dollar savings in battery pack development costs, and reduce the time-to-market for custom battery packs.

"The development cycle of ‘ground-up’ battery development was proving simply too lengthy, costly, and risky for many OEMs to take on. That’s why we founded IONETIC: to create a better, more efficient way to bring bespoke battery packs to market, ultimately making electrification more accessible and compelling to more OEMs," James Eaton, CEO and Co-Founder of IONETIC, tells Auto Futures.

Arc is IONETIC's AI-supported system for battery pack development. It’s a collection of software, hardware, and fabrication technologies, which combined allow it to swiflty bring custom battery packs to market.

"We’ve developed a network of AI-accelerated design tools which remove manual, iterative human design engineering. Instead, Arc rapidly optimises, conceptualises, and brings-to-life the battery pack’s design, facilitating significant time and cost reductions. It means our team can spend more time on the stuff that actually matters, and we pass this benefit on to our customers."

Arc can reduce the development cycle required for bespoke EV battery systems from tier 1 suppliers by integrating pre-validated components into a fully end-to-end battery pack development system.

In a press release, Eaton, states: "It’s our mission to help OEMs supercharge the electric transition in a way that is profitable and futureproofed for the next era of mobility – a mission that our proprietary technology is primed to achieve.”

Building A Digital Twin

IONETIC is working with Rockwell Automation, the world's largest company dedicated to industrial automation and digital transformation, to build a one-stop-shop for battery-pack design, testing, and manufacturing. 

"Setting up traditional battery pack manufacturing lines can be incredibly expensive and lengthy. As such, working with Rockwell, we knew we needed to develop a fundamentally different approach to battery pack fabrication. We took inspiration from semiconductor fabrication, whereby we could create a single fixed facility, which could adapt to build the specific designs for our different customers," explains Eaton.

"We’ve worked a lot with Rockwell Automation on the design of the facility, as well as using their industry-leading Emulate3D™ software to build a comprehensive digital twin of the entire system," he adds.

Using simulation and modelling enables IONETIC to generate the detailed requirements of a modular flexible production facility.

"We will have more to announce shortly, but expect some big news later this year about our first battery fabrication and industrialisation centre, based right here in the UK. We have a number of customer projects already in progress but are limited in what we can share right now."

Making Electrification Compelling

Finally, we asked Eaton what more can be done to promote the adoption of EVs.

"This is a big question with no short answer. Firstly, EVs may already be the best solution for some people. On a monthly basis there are now EVs on cost parity with their ICE counterparts. If you don’t drive long distances and have a driveway, then infrastructure shouldn’t really matter! Having said that, we’ve already seen incredible changes in charging infrastructure in the last two years, which will only continue to improve," he says.

"In the mass-market space, I think the next real change is going to be enabled by the OEMs, creating more affordable mass-market vehicles that truly compete and start to undercut the price of ICE vehicles. Major brands have already started making real progress on this front, but of course progress still needs to be made across the board.

"In niche vehicles, where IONETIC operates, we want to make electrification compelling and a painless experience for OEMs facing major barriers today," Eaton concludes.