Ricardo secures government funding to design advanced modular battery system
Ricardo, a world-leading engineering and manufacturing consultancy, has secured funding to design and develop a next-generation Advanced Modular Battery Systems (AMBERS). Bringing together leading UK capabilities across cell supply, systems engineering, and pack manufacturing to accelerate time to market of scalable, high-power battery platforms for use in automotive, aerospace, off-highway, and defence applications, with the ultimate goal of strengthening sovereign supply to UK customers.
The AMBERS project was awarded through the Battery Innovation Programme, a £452 million UK Government‑funded programme delivered by Innovate UK and supported by the Department for Business and Trade as part of the Government’s Industrial Strategy.
The battery pack will be designed using modular building blocks comprising an array of cells with integrated water-glycol cooling. The design will use 21700 power cells that can be configured in predefined patterns of series and parallel cells to achieve multiple platform requirements of current and voltage.
The AMBERS battery baseline design pack is planned to achieve a pack power density of 2.6kW/L together with a pack energy density of 220Wh/L making it one of the best performance packs in the market. At the end of the project, the scalable battery packs will be available off the shelf for vehicle manufacturers.
As part of the project, Ricardo is leading a consortium of partners, including Volklec and Hyperbat, for the development and manufacture of the battery pack, with the ultimate goal of producing the product in the UK for local and international markets. Volklec, the UK-based battery cell manufacturer, will supply high-power 21700 cells for integration into the AMBERS battery system, supporting the project’s objective of developing a sovereign UK battery supply chain. Hyperbat, a Unipart business, will manufacture the battery packs at its Coventry site.
Temoc Rodriguez, Ricardo’s Global Technical Expert in Electric Propulsion System said, “This new product offering will expand our portfolio of high-performance powertrains and bring to market a range of advanced technologies that Ricardo has been developing in recent years.
By providing a scalable architecture, customers will no longer have to invest millions of pounds in development. They will be able to purchase the baseline battery pack design developed under project AMBERS or only spend a smaller amount in customisation based on the AMBERS architecture. This will accelerate platform development and deployment to customers, and allow businesses to support British-made battery technology.”
Ricardo will bring several innovations into the battery’s design, including advanced cooling architecture that enables higher discharge rates, wireless BMS, and artificial intelligence estimation of State of Charge, State of Health, DC Internal Resistance, Remaining Useful Life, and thermal runaway index.
ENDS
Notes for editors
Battery Innovation Programme
The Battery Innovation Programme, a UK government funded programme, delivered by Innovate UK and supported by the Department for Business and Trade, as part of the government’s Industrial Strategy, is a £452 million programme running from 2026 to 2030. It is designed to grow the UK economy by accelerating battery innovation and enhancing the nation’s global competitiveness across automotive, aerospace, off-highway, storage and maritime.
The AMBERS project has been enabled thanks to £972k funding from the Battery Innovation Programme, a UK government funded programme, delivered by Innovate UK and supported by the Department for Business and Trade, as part of the government’s Industrial Strategy, matched by £940k from the consortium partners.
About Ricardo
Ricardo is a trusted engineering partner specialising in complex propulsion, driveline, and energy systems. We work with customers globally. For over 110 years, we have been at the forefront of world changing engineering innovation, partnering with many of the world’s most ambitious organisations to improve performance, push boundaries, and accelerate progress.
Headquartered in Shoreham-by-Sea (UK), Ricardo brings together more than 1,000 experts and delivers in excess of 200 major programmes globally at any given time. For more information, visit www.ricardo.com
