This Dutch startup wants to electrify industrial-scale machines

The Netherlands-based Eleo is on a mission to accelerate the transition to a fossil-free future. How? Well, by providing high-tech batteries to the machines and vehicles most difficult to electrify.

These mainly include industrial, off-highway machines in the construction, agricultural, and forestry sectors — but also cover electric mobility, ranging from cargo and last-mile delivery vehicles to vessels.

Eleo started out as a student team at the Eindhoven University of Technology, and was founded in 2017. Since then it’s been designing and manufacturing in-house battery systems that boost a high level of performance and flexibility.

Specifically, the startup offers modular batteries that are scalable in size, voltage, and capacity, in order to meet custom-specific requirements. Users can also ensure that the battery packs are achieving optimal performance through Eleo’s proprietary battery management system (BMS), which provides estimations on the state-of-charge (SOC), state-of-health (SOH), and state-of-power (SOP).

Another product advantage the company offers is its “plug & play” nature, meaning that the batteries are delivered fully certified, tested, and ready for direct installation.

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Now the startup is planning to increase its production capacity tenfold with its new plant on the Automotive Campus in Helmond — which was inaugurated last Thursday by King Willem-Alexander.

The new 3,000m² building will be responsible for the fully-automated assembly of battery modules. It’ll also incorporate a research center and development labs to advance current battery technology.

Overall, the plant will increase annual production capacity tenfold, reaching approximately 10,000 battery packs — which can collectively store around 500MWh of power. Eleo also expects to grow its personnel from 60 to 200 employees over the course of two years.

“The trend toward zero-emission is already in full swing in the automotive industry,” Bas Verkaik, co-founder of Eleo said in a statement. “Electric cars are already quite well-known, but that’s not yet the case for construction machinery running on electricity. In construction, electrification is not too far along yet. With our batteries, we want to initiate and facilitate this development.”