Valence Technology, Inc. recently announced it has entered into a contract with The Tanfield Group Plc to manufacture and supply lithium phosphate energy storage systems to power zero emission, all-electric commercial delivery vehicles. The Valence battery systems will be installed in vans and trucks produced by Tanfield’s UK-based trading division, Smith Electric Vehicles.

Under the agreement, Tanfield will purchase up to $70 million of Valence products in the contract’s first phase and Valence has already received a firm purchase order for the first calendar quarter.

The agreement will also result in Tanfield becoming the first volume customer for Valence’s third generation Lithium Phosphate Epoch technology, a battery system equipped with a management system that monitors and automatically adjusts cell performance so battery packs operate at their optimum performance capacity. 

Epoch benefits include a fail-soft capability that is designed to eliminate system failure caused by a single cell and to have a life cycle comprised of more than 2,000 charge cycles when deep discharged in demanding electric vehicle applications.

Tanfield launched the first of its new generation of Smith zero-emission commercial vehicles in December 2006 and has since developed a wide customer portfolio across the UK and mainland Europe.