Mujeeb Ijaz’s startup powered a Tesla Model S to drive 750+ miles on a single charge. The two-year-old Michigan startup, Our Next Energy (ONE), which says it is aiming to make safer and more sustainable batteries retrofitted the car with a battery holding twice the energy of Tesla’s original—while fitting entirely within the same space. It’s a proof of concept for the company’s own future battery design.
Mujeeb is a battery engineer with more than 30 years of experience at Apple, A123 Systems and Ford. “We want to accelerate the adoption of EVs by eliminating range anxiety, which holds back consumers today,” said Mujeeb in a press release.
Bill Gates and BMW are among those investing in his startup.
ONE put its higher-capacity prototype pack into a Tesla Model S Long Range Plus, providing nearly 90 percent more range than its original 402-mile EPA figure.
The original Tesla battery had a capacity of 103.9 kilowatt-hours, while the prototype ONE battery that replaced it in the same space has 207.3 kWh. CEO Ijaz confirmed to C/D that ONE used “a single pack retrofitted in the same space as the original battery.” So it’s far more energy-dense, but delivered consumption (in miles per kWh) roughly equal to that of the original battery.
The company dubs its prototype a proof of concept. The point is to show that real-world ranges far longer than an average driver’s endurance (pit stops, ahem) can be achieved in the near future. The next step is for it to evolve into a new battery called Gemini, intended to go into production after 2023.
Dr. Bilal Philips