Echion Technologies

A Cambridge-area battery materials company that makes a niobium-based material, XNO, for batteries that charge in minutes.

About Echion Technologies

Echion Technologies makes XNO, a niobium-based material used in the negative side (the anode) of lithium-ion batteries. Batteries built with XNO are designed to charge in under ten minutes, keep their energy in cold weather and last more than 10,000 charge cycles. Echion does not build whole vehicles. It supplies the advanced material that battery makers put inside their cells, and it is protected by a large family of patents (the company reports 22 patent families). Its website says XNO is now in commercial volume production and used in mining, AI data centres, robotics, industrial energy storage, rail and marine, and that Echion holds ISO 9001:2015 quality certification.

The company is a spin-out from the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering. Its founders include Jean de la Verpilliere (chief executive), Dr Alexander Groombridge (chief technology officer), Professor Michael De Volder and Professor Adam Boies. In its own words, Echion's ambition is "to deliver the best fast-charging batteries to unlock the electrification of heavy-duty vehicles". Its chief executive has also credited the whole team for working "tirelessly" to develop XNO.

Echion is a UK business. A 2021 report placed it in new facilities at Sawston, Cambridgeshire, and said it planned to expand, and a 2024 report described it as headquartered just outside Cambridge. Its target uses are battery trains, mining haul trucks, buses that top up their charge during the day, delivery vehicles and other heavy-duty transport. It has worked on UK projects with partners including Vantage Power and Johnson Matthey, and its long-standing partner CBMM, the world's largest niobium producer, makes XNO powder at industrial scale in Brazil. Echion describes itself as a technology company that works with cell makers, vehicle makers and system builders to find the right XNO-based product for each job.

The leadership team named in 2024 includes a chief operating officer and a chief financial officer alongside the founders, which shows the range of careers inside a deep-tech company. We did not find a culture statement. A university-backed investor described the company as a team that combines great technology, talent and partners, which is an outside view rather than the company's own.

People in a materials company like this work in chemistry, materials science, process and chemical engineering, laboratory testing, quality, supply chain, operations, finance and sales. Echion has not published a headcount on the pages we read, so the best way to learn what working there is like is to follow its news and see who it hires.

What they do

• {'desc': 'A niobium-based material that lets lithium-ion batteries charge in minutes.', 'title': 'XNO anode material'}
• {'desc': 'Materials for trains, mining trucks, buses and delivery vehicles.', 'title': 'Heavy-duty transport batteries'}
• {'desc': 'Producing XNO in large volumes with its niobium partner.', 'title': 'Scale-up manufacturing'}

Key facts

• Spin-out from the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering
• Based at Sawston, Cambridgeshire (2021 report); HQ just outside Cambridge (2024)
• XNO designed for charging in under 10 minutes and 10,000+ cycles (own claim)
• Partners include CBMM, Johnson Matthey and Vantage Power

Website: www.echiontech.com