When every manufacturer starts to discover that the designs and products of the thermal management experts at KULR Technology Group Inc. (OTCQB:KULR) can be applied to just about anything using a Lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery, KULR is going to be a household name. For now, deals just keep coming that are meant to put the KULR carbon fiber technologies to test, and they simply keep getting the job done.
A microcap company virtually unknown to investors for years until recently, KULR has repeatedly been the choice of NASA, with its thermal management technologies protecting Li-ion batteries in astronaut’s laptops and tablets at the International Space Station and critical components of the Perseverance rover currently searching for signs of life on Mars. The San Diego-based company has worked with many of the leading names in aerospace, including Boeing (NYSE:BA), Ball Aerospace (NYSE:BLL), Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) and more.
Since embarking on more generalized commercialization efforts last year in addition to legacy business, big names keep coming to KULR looking for answers to the incessant engineering problem of thermal management while Li-ion batteries are pushed to the limits against expectations for more power in smaller areas. In these cases, heat dissipation and protection against thermal runaway (fire from a damaged or defective cell jumping from cell to cell) are paramount in performance and tantamount to safety.
Last year, Drako Motors hired KULR to provide its innovative carbon fiber thermal management technology in their $1.3-million all-electric supercar sporting a top speed of 206 mph. Now another company that knows something about speed – Andretti Technologies, the advanced technology arm of Andretti Autosport – has teamed up with KULR. Founded by Michael Andretti, son of racing icon Mario Andretti and one of the most successful drivers in open-wheel car racing history, Andretti Technologies or “ATEC”, has forged an alliance with KULR for which KULR will establish a thermal management testing and design platform for high performance battery solutions with the highest safety ratings specially adapted to the rigorous technical requirements of Andretti’s global racing enterprise.
In what could be a company maker for KULR, both partners will focus on co-developing and co-marketing motorsports’ battery and safety technologies to automotive partners for mass market EV applications.
“The alliance with KULR provides ATEC additional technical resources to accelerate engineering and scale battery system development in a sustainable way,” says Roger Griffiths, Chief Technology Officer of Andretti Technologies, “while also allowing us access to KULR’s hardware expertise to help compete with the largest OEMs in the most competitive motorsport races on the planet.”
In short, ATEC is interested in transferring KULR technical knowledge trusted by NASA to the racetrack, where lightweight, high-performance solutions can be the difference between winning and losing. ATEC plans to implement new cooling technology, battery cell architecture and testing methodologies for its high performance and high-power applications within the global EV motorsports marketplace.
KULR’s passive propagation resistant (PPR) solutions also played a part in ATEC’s decision to partner, according to the company. The PPR solutions are instrumental in containing thermal runaway with Li-ion battery fires, absorbing and mitigating rapid temperature changes, maintaining required temperatures and avoiding efficiency loss or damage to system components.
“We are in the early innings of the EV revolution,” said Michael Mo, CEO of KULR. “ATEC is a perfect partner for KULR to showcase our space-proven technology in the world of high-performance motorsports. From here, we will deliver the absolute pinnacle in performance and the safest battery products for the mass EV markets.”
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