Micro Cap Shines as Space Technology Meets EV Supercar

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Thursday, July 23, 2020

The International Space Station is moving at 17,000 mph in order to stay in Earth’s orbit. When the ULA Atlas V rocket carrying the Perseverance Rover leaves for Mars next week, it will cruise along at supersonic speeds around 10,000 mph. While impressive, neither compares to the Mercury Messenger, which topped out at more than 140,000 mph while exploring the closest planet to the sun.

Now, technology that is used on all those machines is coming to Earth as part of one of the most elite electric vehicles, the GTE supercar by Drako Motors. With four motors packing a whopping 1,200 horsepower and 6,500 foot-pounds of wheel torque, the GTE tops out at 206 mph, which recently gained it acclaim as it walloped a Tesla Model S P100D in a drag race. The Drako was also featured in Jay Leno’s Garage on YouTube.

The $1.25 million GTE is going to have something in common with the aforementioned spacecraft: A Lithium-ion battery thermal management solution from KULR Technology Group, Inc. (OTCQB:KULR). A truly bespoke and hand-built car, Drako designed and developed its own 90 kwh Li-ion battery, located in the floor of the car and capable of 2,200 amps of pulse current and 1,800 amps of continuous current. That’s believed to be the highest continuous output EV battery in production today.

That’s a full megawatt of energy at 450 volts.

To manage all the heat that can be created from the battery, Drako has turned to KULR for its technology that is trusted by NASA in some of the most extreme conditions tens of millions of miles from Earth.

Per the new agreement, KULR will supply Drako with its carbon fiber thermal interface (FTI) material, technology that has been validated in space for its superior thermal conductivity, ultra-lightweight and flexible properties. While the technology has been to Mercury and is on its way to Mars, the new pact with Drako marks KULR’s first officially announced foray into the EV space, an industry that remains challenged to control heat while generating more power for faster speed and longer run-times.

“Designing the highest performance and most sophisticated electric supercar in the world requires extreme levels of technology and innovation.” said Shiv Sikand, Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of Drako Motors, in Thursday’s news release. “Utilizing KULR's battery cooling architecture developed for NASA's most demanding applications enables us to safely push the limits of electric vehicle performance on both road and track,” he added.

KULR brings the complete package of next-generation products to the EV marketplace, including battery thermal management with FTI materials, battery safety with passive propagation resistant (PPR) design, battery safety testing with internal short circuit (ISC) technology, and electrical motor and component cooling with FTI and phase change material (PCM) solutions.

All of these are critical to heat dissipation and fire prevention, a well-known problem with Li-ion batteries. KULR’s PPR design involves enveloping individual cells so that in the event of a malfunction or damage to one cell that causes it to catch fire, the heat is contained before it spreads to adjacent cells.

To put it into perspective, understand that a Drako GTE has one block of 88 cells in parallel and then 108 of those blocks in series. That’s 9,504 heat-generating cells giving the supercar its incredible torque and horsepower.

“Anyone who’s ever held an electronic device knows batteries can get hot and high-performance, top-end batteries can get extremely hot when pushed to their limits,” said KULR CEO Michael Mo, in a statement. He continued, “We’re excited to partner with Drako Motors in the thermal design of their battery packs -- the very best of thermal performance in space applied to the very pinnacle of EV performance on Earth.”

Investors should be excited about the progress KULR is making since recently beginning to push towards commercialization outside of aerospace and defense applications. The company struck an agreement in April with Americase, the market leader in DDR (Damaged, Defective, or Recalled) battery shipments, where Americase will utilize KULR technology to safely ship batteries.

About a week ago, KULR inked an agreement with Viridi Parente company Volta Energy Products to provide its PPR technology for implementation into stationary energy storage modules from the grid intended for both immediate backup in case of power outages and supplemental energy during peak demand.

As the company keeps gaining traction with its leading thermal management products, it’s no big surprise that Litchfield Hills Research LLC initiated coverage on KULR with a “Buy” rating and a $5.00 price target. Shares closed Wednesday at $1.41.

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