3ME Technology has signed a Letter of Intent with California-headquartered South 8 Technologies to collaborate on the development and commercialisation of a cold-weather variant of its modular EdgeVOLT battery energy storage system.
Based in Newcastle in the New South Wales Hunter region, 3ME specialises in the provision of customised battery electric vehicle and energy storage systems for applications across the defence, mining, maritime, and aerospace sectors.
Among the company’s products is its EdgeVOLT battery, a scalable 24 V 2.5 kWh energy storage solution designed for powering tactical vehicles, microgrids, or advanced field systems. The individual unit mimics the size, shape, and weight of a standard military 20-litre jerry can and can be used alone or with up to 10 batteries connected in parallel to create a 25 kWh bank.
The technology is already being used in the Australian and US defence sectors and now the company is working with South 8 to develop a variant tailored for extreme cold-weather applications.
“In cold environments, battery limitations surface fast and when they do, they quickly become operational risk,” 3ME Chief of Staff Tarrant Fuller said. “I’ve seen this repeatedly … where equipment that performs well elsewhere simply can’t cope once temperatures drop.”
“This collaboration is about addressing that gap properly, by focusing on battery chemistry and system design inherently suited to extreme cold, rather than trying to compensate for it.”
Under the agreement, South 8 will supply liquefied gas electrolyte (LiGas) battery cells at production scale for integration into 3ME’s EdgeVOLT lithium-ion battery solution. The American company said its LiGas battery cells are designed to operate in temperatures ranging from ‑60 °C to 60 °C.
“South 8’s LiGas uses a liquefied gas electrolyte held under pressure, with an ultra‑low freezing point (below –100 °C), enabling reliable lithium‑ion performance at temperatures where conventional liquid electrolytes rapidly lose effectiveness below 0 °C and typically freeze around –20 °C,” Tarrant said. “Its thermal runaway and safety characteristics were equally compelling.”
While the initial focus of the collaboration will be on defence applications requiring portable power in austere environments, including sustained Arctic conditions, South 8 Chief Executive Jungwoo Lee said the companies will also explore broader product development and commercialisation opportunities.
“LiGas enables a new level of cold-weather performance, and we look forward to unlocking next-generation capabilities across critical defence and commercial platforms alongside 3ME,” Lee said.
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