Cell Propulsion launches first battery production line

Cell Propulsion, an electric mobility start-up, inaugurated its pilot production plant in Bengaluru for the manufacturing, assembly and testing of Li-ion battery packs. The maximum output capacity of this pilot plant is 500kW-hr per month. These battery packs will be installed in the eLCVs that they are manufacturing.

Founded by former ISRO engineers, Cell Propulsion offers smart and electric fleet management solutions. It is focused on the design and development of electric commercial vehicles (eCVs - eLCVs and eTrucks). They deploy these vehicles as part of a fully managed solution to make the adoption of eCVs by logistics and transportation companies completely seamless.

The battery system for commercial vehicle application is a very different design problem compared to the design of battery packs for passenger vehicles or light vehicles. Cell Propulsion has successfully engineered a reliable system, for the purposes of both Light and Heavy Commercial Vehicles, which is modular, robust and has simple implementation.

The company has employed novel design approaches to develop battery systems that will consider safety, thermal performance, structural loads, power delivery and modularity. The battery management system designed by Cell Propulsion implements proprietary algorithms for state estimation of battery packs - typically for charge and health.

The commissioning of the pilot line for producing automotive-grade (AIS-48 certified) battery packs is a major milestone in the journey to deploy class-leadingeLCVs for their customers. This launch comes after Cell Propulsion raised $2 million in June 2021 from a clutch of private equity investors, including Endiya Partners, GrowX Ventures, Huddle Accelerator and Micelio. Last September, the company had also raised $1 million in a pre-series A round of fundraising.