One Line, Many Batteries: How Ionetic and Rockwell Automation Are Making Electrification Easier

One Line, Many Batteries

Imagine a manufacturing line as versatile as a highly skilled tailor, able to create bespoke suits designed precisely to the needs of the customer. However, imagine the tailor could create a bespoke suit in a matter of hours, not days, and at a price comparable to that of a high-street retailer. While perhaps a somewhat extended metaphor, this is the essence of the partnership between Ionetic and Rockwell Automation. Together, the two companies successfully apply this philosophy to bring never-before-seen solutions to the world of electric vehicles and their batteries.

Challenge

Until now, niche and low-volume OEMs have had limited choice when it comes to EV battery solutions. Standardized off-the-shelf packs offer reliability but can lack the flexibility needed for unique vehicle designs. On the other hand, fully bespoke battery programs from Tier 1 engineering service providers require significant volumes and investment, putting their benefits beyond the reach for many innovative OEMs. This means that smaller manufacturers have experienced a slower path to electrification while larger OEMs have moved the needle with custom solutions tailored to their scale.

By leveraging Rockwell’s cutting-edge digital twin technology and Ionetic’s AI-supported, software-accelerated systems, we are finally breaking this cycle, delivering industry-transformative custom battery packs that meet the performance, cost, and time-to-market needs of a wide range of modern OEMs.

Why the Partnership Exists: Solving Systemic Challenges

There is no doubt that electrification is the future. Despite the widely reported slowdown in electric vehicles sales in Europe, the long-term trend is for sustainable growth. Yet despite the growth in gigafactories, the cost of battery packs continues to be a challenge, accounting for as much as 40% of an EV’s total cost.

For high-volume vehicle platforms, producing hundreds of thousands or even millions of units, this cost ratio can be absorbed over time. But the barrier to entry for smaller and niche manufacturers is considerably more significant – sometimes impossible.

While electrification is key to achieving net-zero emissions, many smaller OEMs struggle to access the right battery solutions. Because traditional manufacturing methods are designed for high-volume production, it’s harder for niche manufacturers to find battery packs that fit their specific needs. Addressing this gap requires a flexible and efficient approach that enables innovation without the barriers of conventional development models.

Systemic Challenges

Rigid manufacturing models Traditional manufacturing lines are time-consuming to build and expensive, ill-suited to the agility needed by low-volume OEMs. They require significant up-front investment (sometimes into the tens of millions) and are built to service a single battery pack design, leaving the OEM unable to adapt designs as battery technology evolves or vehicle designs change.

Compromised performance Off-the-shelf packs often fail to meet critical performance or pack-aging requirements, leading to inefficiencies in weight, size, and energy. They also inhibit the ambition of any manufacturer wishing to create a truly unique vehicle design. So much of vehicle design and performance is integral to, and literally built around, the battery.

Adapting a vehicle design to work with a ‘standard’ battery does little to enhance a vehicle’s aesthetic appeal or the packaging of its various chassis systems and can result in a sea of sameness with identikit designs – leading some to go so far as labelling EVs as mere appliances. The only way to ensure a brand’s DNA is built and maintained in the transition to EVs is to design vehicles and batteries in unison.

Prohibitive costs and timelines Bespoke battery pack development with Tier 1 suppliers can take more than four years and cost upwards of $30 million, an insurmountable barrier for most niche OEMs. Even if budget is available, delays to the project for any number of reasons, be they internal or market-driven, quickly begins to erode already slim profit margins – a problem that can only worsen given the rapid rate of improvement in battery cell performance, year-on-year.

Smarter, Faster, More Scalable

Designing custom EV battery packs is just one piece of the puzzle. Manufacturing them at scale, affordably and efficiently, has long been the real challenge. With traditional development processes not suited to keeping pace with demand, a completely new approach is needed for niche and low-volume EV manufacturers for applications from supercars to buses, trucks, or even boats. It’s a problem that Ionetic has spent the last three years trying to solve, and by taking a completely new approach in partnership with Rockwell, it is confident it has made the breakthrough.

Ionetic and Rockwell Automation have partnered to combine their strengths in software, hardware, and flexible fabrication technologies with advanced automation. Ionetic’s Arc platform integrates AI-driven design, rapid virtual validation, and software-enabled optimization, slashing development time and cost. But without flexible production, even the best designs can stall. That’s where Arc Fab, its adaptable manufacturing system, comes in.

Powered by Rockwell’s automation and digital twin technology, Arc Fab enables multiple custom battery packs to be built on a single line, reducing commissioning time by up to two thirds, significantly reducing time to market for OEMs. With smart factory technologies like Emulate3D™ dynamic digital twin software, Plex Smart Manufacturing Platform and independent cart track technology, it is creating a new standard for battery pack manufacturing: one that’s fast, cost-effective, and scalable for niche and low-volume OEMs.

Battery manufacturing is typically slow and expensive. By combining Rockwell's automation and digital twin technology with the efficiencies of Arc, we've significantly cut the time and cost of setting up production lines. This means we can commission customer lines faster, reduce delays, and make scaling up far more predictable.

For smaller OEMs, that makes custom battery pack production more accessible and flexible. With a choice of different cell formats, chemistries, and system voltages, our customers can quickly optimize their electrification strategy with battery packs tailored to their needs.

JAMES EATON
CEO and Founder, Ionetic