Winchester, UK - Axeon Holdings (Dundee, Scotland) has completed a two year project funded by the Department for Transport under the Energy Saving Trust's Low Carbon R&D programme, which has resulted in the development of a new Lithium-ion battery for use in a fully electric urban delivery vehicle.

Axeon has increased the energy density of the batteries by custom designing an improved Lithium Iron Phosphate cell, using its expertise in cell design and assembly methods. Independent tests over an urban delivery cycle on a single charge suggested a 25 percent improvement, but local tests on Scottish roads showed an increased range from 123 km to 241 km, an increase of 97 percent.

Prototypes were tested in 3.5 ton electric commercial vehicles built by Modec, one of the UK's leading suppliers of zero emission commercial vehicles. Modec now plans to launch vehicles powered by Axeon's new extended range batteries in the first half of 2009.

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