The research and development agreement is aimed at accelerating both companies’ electrification roadmaps and will see their engineering teams joining forces to mature technologies related to energy storage, which remains one of the main roadblocks for the development of long-range electric vehicles.

The agreement will also cover technologies that are key to energy management optimisation and battery weight improvements.

In its announcement, Airbus said it wanted to move from current cell chemistries such as widely used lithium-ion batteries to all-solid-state designs which could double the energy density of batteries by 2030.

The joint work will also study the full lifecycle of future batteries, from production to recyclability, in order to prepare the industrialisation of these future battery designs while assessing their carbon footprint across their entire lifecycle.

“Aviation is an extremely demanding field in terms of both safety and energy consumption...