Ashok Leyland and IIT Madras to set up battery engineering facility

In what is another triumph for industry-academia connect, CV manufacturer Ashok Leyland and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU). Under the MoU, Ashok Leyland will sponsor the Centre of Battery Engineering (CoBE) at IIT Madras.

The CoBE aims to supplement ongoing research by facilitating collaboration between industry and researchers, which is currently lacking, to study various battery characteristics that are not completely understood even among global players.

CoBE aims to work towards understanding various battery issues and challenges across various applications. It will also undertake high-quality research projects to overcome these challenges. This will involve focusing on the physics part of battery technology as against other research units working on newer chemistries of the batteries.

The Centre will target work in battery engineering and thorough characterisation of batteries via detailed testing, optimising battery performance for different applications and work towards better economics.  

CoBE will collaborate with cell manufacturers globally, procure cells and characterise them to create a knowledge centre on available cells, providing the industry with valuable data to select appropriate solutions. It will also study the impact of partial charge-discharge cycles with varying depths of discharge and operating temperatures on battery life.

The facility will also work on developing the next generation of smart battery chargers and battery management protocols. By working on the design configurations, and packaging cells into modules differently, optimisation studies on batteries for different lifetime for different applications will be undertaken.

Driving synergies across EV battery value chain
Additionally, CoBE will play a larger role of coordinating synergy with various industry partners to develop a holistic cooperation model across the entire value chain of EV batteries. It will also be doing consulting work for Ashok Leyland as well as others in niche and IPR-intensive areas where there is a need for in-depth testing and development, including simulations. Through this partnership, Ashok Leyland aims to support the EV ecosystem at a national level.

Commenting on the initiative, Karthick Athmanathan, head, Electric Vehicles and E-Mobility Solutions at Ashok Leyland, said, “Ashok Leyland has been leading in pioneering technologies and disruptions in the commercial vehicle space. We are confident CoBE at IITM will be a key partner in the country’s electric mobility vision and will help us understand this technology better and stay ahead of global players. We are committed to the government’s vision for e-mobility and want to develop the ecosystem which will help us come up with customised EV solutions for our country.”

Sharing his views about the MoU, Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, director, IIT Madras, said, “Battery engineering, specifically for electric vehicles, is a very important emerging area of research and innovation. By pledging long-term support and collaborating with the CoBE at IIT Madras, Ashok Leyland is making a significant contribution to this critical technology for India’s future energy and transportation needs.”