The government is putting almost £1m into a UK electric vehicle battery consortium through its Technology Strategy Board (TSB).
"The aim of the project is to develop battery chemistry that will deliver high energy densities, and to produce a prototype for the plug-in electric vehicles (PHEV) application," said Oxfordshire-based Imperial College spin-out Nexeon, a consortium member developing silicon-based anodes.
Working with Nexeon is battery manufacturer Axeon, the University of St Andrews, and car technology firm Ricardo.
Consortium partners will match the TSB funding.
"Over the next two years, applied research conducted at St Andrews on potential cathode materials will be combined with appropriate chemical engineering by Nexeon to scale-up material synthesis and optimise electrode fabrication, resulting in prototype Li-ion cells based on its proprietary silicon anode technology," said Nexeon.
Cells produced will be used by Axeon to construct a PHEV-type battery, which Ricardo will test in a demonstrator vehicle platform.
Nexeon 's technology is based on work done by Professor Mino Green, Emeritus Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering at Imperial College, London.
It has established research and development facilities and a pilot plant at the Science Centre at Culham, Oxfordshire.