U.K. Auto Battery Innovator Wins Backing from ex-Tesla Chiefs

Three former Tesla executives are taking the helm of a U.K. electric vehicle battery and motor manufacturer, claiming technology that could be as disruptive as their former employer.

The trio, Peter Bardenfleth-Hansen as chief executive while Christian Eidem and Jochen Rudat join as executive directors, are so convinced by the Welsh company DG Innovate that they invested £2.4 million ($3 million) of their own money into the venture.

Key to the technology of the company based in Caerphilly is the development of its sodium-ion batteries for battery-electric vehicles, which could be cheaper and safer than the widely used lithium-ion batteries.

Bardenfleth-Hansen tells the early morning BBC Business TV program that the innovative battery technology and access to highly skilled engineers persuaded the trio to get personally involved in the company. He says: “Coming from a disruptor that Tesla is, I thought we’d never meet anything again that could be disrupting the same industry, but then that is exactly what DG Innovate has done. The U.K. has a long, long history of research and development right back to the industrial revolution. It is very good at engineering and what I’ve found in Wales really resonates with this. It is really world-class tech that we have found.”

He says he is especially excited by the company’s alternative battery anode technology made from bio-waste that could free the automotive industry from China’s stranglehold on ingredients for battery production. Bardenfleth-Hansen explains: “One of the company’s focus areas is the battery and specifically within anode production, where we are focusing on making a patented hard carbon anode as opposed to lithium-ion anode which is what we all know today. However, almost all lithium-ion comes out of China and that is not very sustainable in any way, is environmentally hazardous and leaves us completely in the hands of the Chinese.”

DG Innovate's second area of expertise lies in compact electric motor production that opened Bardenfleth-Hansen’s eyes to its potential. He adds: “When I first heard about the company I thought it may be too good to be true, but when I came to Wales I found here is a company that can make electric motors one-third the size, one-third the weight and one-third the cost of existing motors. Yet, they are even more efficient, offering 98.5% more efficiency than what’s currently out there.

“The same goes for the battery and having the technology here and being produced here using local components and local bio-waste to make things that we are currently importing from China.”