- UK-based battery specialist Raeon enters a strategic alliance with Hidria to support customers moving from pilot production to large-scale manufacturing.
- A structured pathway to growth is created, with low and medium volume builds in the UK and high-volume output in European facilities.
- Focus placed on high-performance sectors including defence, marine, off-highway vehicles, niche automotive and advanced air mobility.
- FloLock™ platform enables rapid delivery of production-ready battery systems using multiple chemistries and cell formats within weeks.
Raeon has confirmed a major strategic partnership with Hidria, the European industrial technology group supported by Gonvarri Industries, marking a significant step in its expansion strategy.
Unveiled on World Battery Day, the collaboration addresses a long-standing production bottleneck for manufacturers operating in specialist vehicle markets.
Tom Brooks, COO and co-founder of Raeon said: “Historically, manufacturers in sectors like Marine Defence, Motorsport, and Niche Automotive have faced a binary choice: force-fit standard “off-the-shelf” modules that compromise vehicle performance, or pay unpalatable costs in non-recurring costs for bespoke mass-market solutions that become uncompetitive as battery technology evolves.
“This partnership offers a solution and avoids the need to compromise.”
Raeon’s patent-pending FloLock™ encapsulation process enables the company to produce application-specific battery modules at volumes ranging from one to 10,000 units annually from its UK base. The system supports multiple chemistries, including LTO, Sodium Ion, NMC and LFP, without the need for costly tooling changes. Through the new partnership, these optimised designs can be scaled efficiently into higher-volume European production.
Tom Brooks added: “We built Raeon to tackle the problem of battery cost and lead time. We set out to answer ‘how do lower volume vehicle manufacturers access their perfect battery without spending millions on development and waiting years and years?
“Whether you’re building 10 high-performance restomods or 500 autonomous defence vehicles, you need a battery that is optimised for your specific requirements – rarely does an ‘off-the-shelf’ battery tick all the boxes. This partnership with Hidria allows us to support our existing and future customers from their first production batch right through to global mass-market scale.”
The joint model is designed for sectors where performance and durability are critical and standard battery formats are unsuitable, including defence platforms, motorsport, industrial vehicles and specialist automotive applications.
The agreement provides customers with a lower-risk route to expansion. Raeon will continue to supply flexible, UK-manufactured battery packs for early production, with output transitioning to Hidria’s high-capacity European facilities as demand increases.
Boštjan Berginc, Corporate Innovation and R&D Director at Hidria, commented: “At Hidria, we are committed to sustainable growth and technological excellence. Raeon’s innovative approach to battery assembly unlocks a vast new range of sectors for us, from electric forklifts to electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft. Together, we offer a complete lifecycle solution: agile, custom manufacturing in the UK backed by the industrial scale and financial stability of Gonvarri Industries in Europe.”
The partnership also supports compliance with tightening UK–EU Rules of Origin requirements by combining globally sourced cell technology with regional battery assembly, helping customers maintain tariff-free trade.
Enquiries regarding custom battery programmes can be directed to [email protected].
