TaiSan, a UK company developing quasi-solid-state sodium batteries for the automotive industry, announced the raise of £1.3 battery electric vehicle (BEV) technology.

Led by EIT InnoEnergy and TSP Ventures and followed by Heartfelt VC and Exergon, TaiSan’s pre-seed round is backed by Europe’s leading strategic e-mobility funds. Co-funded by the European Union, EIT InnoEnergy has investment links to both leading automotive OEMs and battery gigafactories. Heartfelt VC is also linked to a leading automotive OEM.

Adoption of sodium-ion chemistry could be one of the next major BEV shifts, offering significant cost, sustainability, and safety benefits vs lithium-ion, with the global market expected to rapidly grow and be worth £1 billion by 20281 reaching a capacity of 186 GWh/year in 2030.

Launched in 2022 with the objective of realizing an industry-disrupting increase in the energy density of sodium batteries for BEVs, TaiSan has developed its own proprietary, innovative electrolyte and anode materials.

The company’s Gen 1.0 product has resulted in comparable volumetric and gravimetric battery energy density to an automotive lithium-ion, but with a projected 20% cost saving over the most common chemistry for BEV batteries. TaiSan technology is based on sustainable and abundant, environmentally friendly materials across the board (i.e., no lithium, nickel, cobalt and copper metals are used).

Its technology offers industry-standard ionic conductivity to enable fast-charging, reduction of dendrite growth that usually limits battery cycle life, high capacity anode, and with no leakage possible, no risk of fire. The IP is designed as a ‘drop-in’ solution to existing lithium-ion battery manufacturing facilities to scale faster with the lower barrier to the market.

TaiSan has already signed a number of MOUs with automotive manufacturers from 7 different countries. The latest funding will help the company to progress with agreed customers milestones and advance the development of the company’s innovative electrolyte and anode materials.

Over the last two years, TaiSan has received close to a total of £500,000 in funding by multiple UK Government and Research organizations, including the Department for Transport (DfT), The Faraday Institution, Innovate UK, Advanced Propulsion Centre, Royal Academy of Engineering and Catapult Connected Places. In October 2023, TaiSan was recognised with the award of “Best Growth Potential” by Professor Sarah Sharples (Chief Scientific Advisor to DfT).

The TaiSan team is made up of experienced battery scientists and electrochemists, formerly of MIT, Imperial College, Jaguar Land Rover and The Faraday Institution organisations. Founder Sanzhar Taizhan has received multiple UK battery awards and is a former JLR battery engineer.