Ten months after the aborted Britishvolt project, former Liberal Prime Minister Philippe Couillard has become one of the leaders of a young company that wants to develop aluminum ion batteries. The newspaper.
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“Aluminum is very abundant here. We don’t need to go to the other side of the world to find them,” he explains diary the 31ste prime minister
This young company from Montreal is called Eleqtrion. Its CEO is William Reynolds, formerly of Britishvolt, where Philippe Couillard had been.
At Eleqtrion, Philippe Couillard holds the position of “Director of Strategy”.
“It’s a drum chemistry that’s in its infancy,” he explains. Remember that the Chinese are working on a sodium battery and the Australians are also making an aluminum one. New battery technologies are emerging right now.
Supply problems
According to Philippe Couillard, there will be supply problems with lithium and therefore prices in the coming years. As a result, electric vehicles will still be expensive, hence the interest in new technologies.
Aluminum is interesting, according to the former head of government, because this resource is close to us, which could help us get closer to supply chains.
Some “90% of Canadian aluminum is produced in Quebec, which is the fourth largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world,” the new company mentions.
There is no factory tomorrow
At diaryhe explains that Eleqtrion is not about to sell batteries, or even to have its own factory, and that it is in its infancy.
That is why it has just formed a partnership with École de Technologie Supérieure (ÉTS).
“We played at ÉTS, because it is an excellent engineering school, to make prototypes. We will test them and maybe show them to potential customers,” he says.
Philippe Couillard insists: Eleqtrion is not a big company, it is a startup project.
“We must show the interest of private investors before asking the government for help in existing programs,” he concludes.
