Amprius Technologies announced orders from three top electric aviation manufacturers for custom cells from its 450Wh/kg ultra-high-energy density battery cell range.
The US company said it customised cells in conjunction with customers who have HAPS (high-altitude pseudo-satellite) qualification requirements. They need to operate in highly challenging environments.
Financial details were not disclosed.
Amprius claims the new 450 Wh/kg cells are “the only known commercially available batteries of their kind” that can provide enough power and endurance for HAPS overnight stratospheric flights.
The US Army reported a test in 2022 where a drone stayed up for 64 days.
Dave Corfield, CEO of UK uncrewed air vehicle systems Prismatic, said: “Our flight missions require extremely high energy batteries to achieve our performance requirements…Partnering with Amprius, we were able to integrate their ultra-high-energy density batteries to achieve our mass targets which are critical to PHASA-35 performance.”
Prismatic is owned by military contractor BAE Systems. Amprius refused to name the two other clients.
Dr. Kang Sun, CEO of Amprius, said: “Our new family of customisable ultra-high-energy density cells offers the ability to significantly reduce weight and increase range.”
The aviation industry is working to enhance cell energy density and minimise aircraft weight, he added.
