World-leading battery case developer Vaulta has been awarded a highly coveted Federal Government grant to commercialise its innovative battery casings for the electric vehicle market.
With Australia rapidly developing new EV vehicles, including flying cars, the funding comes at an opportune time for Vaulta to progress its unique modules.
Vaulta received a grant of $297,500 from the Federal Government’s Accelerating Commercialisation grants program to commercialise its low-cost and light-weight battery modules.
Vaulta founder and director Dominic Spooner said: “This funding from the Federal Government recognises the opportunities opened up by our world-first design.”
“It allows electric vehicle manufacturers to save money, time, weight and space in their vehicles, while greatly increasing efficiencies in safety and workforce deployment.”
Spooner saw an opportunity to reinvigorate battery casing design which had languished, and his designs use a blend of graphene and polymer.
These ingredients, along with other composites, allow for significant improvements in weight, strength, and thermal and electrical conductivity.
An additional benefit is the reduction in the number of parts and their size which reduces the cost to market and ensures greater reuse and recycling of parts.
Vaulta recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the global manufacturer of lithium batteries used in the fastest cars in the world, including NASCAR, IndyCar, and Aussie V8 Supercars. Vaulta together with Canadian companies Braille Energy Systems, Focus Graphite and Grafoid, is focused on battery energy solutions and they are working to conduct market analysis to identify new sectors of interest and co-developed projects.
It also has an MOU with Quickstep, the nation’s largest independent aerospace advanced composites manufacturer, to develop smarter technology for renewables, manned and unmanned drones and electric flight.
Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Christian Porter said the funding will enable supported projects to commercialise their products and attract further investment to enter new local and global markets.
He said projects in the current round of Accelerating Commercialisation grants “are exactly the kind of job-creating innovations we want to see and support, especially in the COVID-19 recovery”.
This project is supported by the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources through the Entrepreneurs’ Programme.