Cuberg Takes Flight
The startup’s lithium-metal battery crushed lithium-ion in a drone flight duel.
The energy density of lithium-ion batteries is improving at a glacial pace, just 5 percent annually. At this rate, the technology simply can’t meet the demand for many nascent and future electric flight applications, from electric planes to air taxis. But even for today’s drone applications — from conservation biologists using drones to collect data on endangered species or landscapes, to nascent drone-based delivery services — flight time is a big constraint.
Fortunately, battery startup Cuberg—led by Cohort Two fellow Richard Wang—has bested lithium-ion’s performance by a vertical leap, demonstrating what is, to his knowledge, the world’s first vertical take-off (VTOL) drone powered by a lithium-metal battery.
In a face-off test, a drone powered by the Cuberg lithium-metal battery showed a 70 percent longer flight time, compared to one powered by a lithium-ion battery.
No other next-generation battery company has publicly shared a similar drone VTOL performance comparison between lithium-ion and lithium-metal batteries.
In a face-off test, a drone powered by the Cuberg battery showed a 70 percent longer flight time than one powered by a lithium-ion battery.
Why now?
“Our high-performance electrolyte chemistry has been ready for real-world testing for several months, but until we built our first commercial-quality cells, we could only estimate its flight performance based on lab data. We’re very pleased to report our first flight tests outside the lab outperformed our highest expectations,” says Cuberg co-founder and CEO Richard Wang. “We ran the flight comparison test several times and observed consistently excellent results.”
What’s next?
Cuberg, which secured funding from Boeing last year, is providing its battery cells to aerospace customers who are beginning internal performance tests, based on their specific use cases and parameters.
Cuberg plans to ramp up to pilot-scale production in the next few months and ultimately plans to serve a range of high-performance electric flight applications that demand improved batteries.
