Graphene Manufacturing Group Ltd. announced the latest progress update on the Graphene Aluminium-Ion Battery technology being developed by GMG and the University of Queensland under a Joint Development Agreement with Rio Tinto, one of the world’s largest metals and mining groups, and with the support of the Battery Innovation Centre of Indiana in the United States of America. Based on its current state of development, as reflected below, the GMG G+AI Battery has performance characteristics similar to those of High Power Lithium Titanate Oxide (“LTO”) batteries, which are sold at a premium of up to $1,500/kWh.
However, the GMG G+AI Battery can be produced at a substantially lower cost and can therefore be priced below LTO batteries. In 2025, sales of LTO batteries, used in many applications worldwide, totalled $5.6 billion.
Bob Galyen, GMG Non-Executive Director, stated, “In my nearly five decades in the battery industry, I have rarely seen a technology with the disruptive potential of GMG’s next-generation graphene aluminium-ion battery.
“With the possibility of charging from empty to full in around six minutes, this chemistry fundamentally changes how designers can think about electric vehicles, consumer electronics, and stationary storage.”
Instead of planning around long charge stops with large packs, engineers can optimise for rapid energy turnaround, higher power, and safety with GMG’s batteries made from abundant raw materials, noted Galyen.
Lithium-ion will remain a key part of the energy landscape for years to come, but its limitations in fast charging, temperature tolerance, and critical-mineral supply are increasingly evident.
By leveraging aluminium and graphene, according to Galyen, the GMG team is demonstrating a pathway to reduce reliance on traditional lithium-based systems while delivering step-change improvements in charge time and power density.
“This is not an incremental tweak to existing cells,” Galyen explained. “It is a new platform that can open markets and use cases that were previously uneconomic or impractical.”
As GMG moves from the lab to scaled manufacturing, its primary focus is proving reliability, safety, and cost at an industrial scale, Galyen stated.
“Automotive, grid, and speciality-device partners are already engaging with GMG to explore pilot programs and early integrations,” he disclosed. “The companies that adapt quickest to this shift will lead the next wave of electrification, and GMG intends to be at the centre of that transition with graphene aluminium-ion technology.”
GMG has now developed a completely new hybrid electrolyte that is chloride-free and noncorrosive, unlike common aluminium battery electrolytes, along with a complex cathode and anode technology that enables very stable fast charging over several cycles.
The substrates for both the cathode and anode in the GMG G+AI Battery are aluminium foil, which provides high cost and weight savings compared with copper, the substrate material used in most lithium- and sodium-ion batteries. GMG’s technology does not use lithium or copper. The Company has submitted an additional patent application covering these new developments.
Craig Nicol, GMG Managing Director and CEO, said, “I couldn’t be happier with the GMG team to get to this point with our battery. We have rebuilt this battery in our weekly sprints from the ground up and developed a completely new complex cathode, anode and electrolyte.
“This will provide a next-generation fast charging battery technology currently not available in the world, and we look forward to sending out sample cells to test with partners in early 2026. This technology has many years of development in front of it and will improve as we keep pushing through known issues to improve capacity, voltage and reduce weight.”
GMG management believes that the Company’s battery technology can eventually achieve over 150 Wh/kg when charged in one hour, and over 75 Wh/kg when charged in 6 minutes. The company believes further development of the cathode, anode, electrolyte and component weights will eventually achieve this end goal.
