OXIS Energy announced recently that soon it will start delivering its Quasi Solid-State lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries to customers for trial applications, proof of concept and demo systems.

Those batteries were promised to offer energy densities of 450 Wh/kg and 550 Wh/L (potentially suitable for electric aircrafts). However, according to Electrive, the company is thin on cash and faces bankruptcy due to a lack of new investments.

"As the British accountancy firm BDO LLP, which says it has been appointed to wind up Oxis Energy Limited, writes in a statement obtained by our editors, the majority of the 60 staff employed at the headquarters and other sites in Oxfordshire and South Wales have been made redundant. Simon Girling and Chris Marsden of BDO have been appointed as insolvency practitioners."

Various things are now envisioned for sale, from specialist testing equipment, through about 200 patents (43 on Quasi Solid-State lithium-sulfur chemistry), to various assets.

For sure it's not something that we would like to hear about, but it might be another example of an EV-related startup that was not able to survive.

Assuming that the financial problems are true, it does not sound right to announce the launch of a new product just around the corner.

OXIS Energy also outlined a path to even higher energy density:

  • 550 Wh/kg and 700 Wh/L by the Fall of 2023
  • 600 Wh/kg and 900 Wh/L by 2026

If there is a chance that this tech can be commercialized, a new owner of the patents maybe will try to use some of the know-how. With today's push in the battery markets, the research team and engineers should not have any problems finding a new job.

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