Project BattCon is an innovative and technical project to pilot a new battery and battery technology testing facility within the UK and provide Lotus with the understanding to invest in a range of containerised test facilities in line with electric vehicle and energy storage market growth. As automotive and other sectors develop new and novel battery technologies there is an increased demand for suitable battery testing facilities and Project BattCon begins to address this problem by providing available and competitive battery testing opportunities for the UK battery supply chain and OEMs.

The new state-of-the-art facilities will enable various battery characterisation tests, performance evaluations and component and lifetime testing to be performed under controlled conditions, providing feasibility study support early in the design phase of a new battery, and validation of the mature pack designs for implementation into product.

Performance and component testing will include, but not limited to, capacity determination, resistance mapping, current and power mapping, open circuit voltage (OCV) determination and heat capacity. Lifetime testing is comprised of low voltage cycling, high voltage cycling, self-discharge determination, storage aging, cycle aging, drive cycle aging and orientation.

Lotus will provide a safe area with specialist staff experienced in testing batteries, an activity that inherently carries significant potential risk. Companies new to the technology and those who would otherwise need to invest in additional test facilities, can save the cost and inevitable time delays in maturing their range of processes and systems, required to develop and test their technologies.

Lotus providing a secure facility enables customers to dramatically reduce their development times and costs and enable products to be taken to market sooner and with reduced risks.