EVIO, a Montréal company building a hybrid-electric regional airliner, has introduced a battery storage unit for defence. The Battery Box is the first product in what EVIO calls its Portable Power family, and it uses the same lithium-ion packs the company is developing for its EVIO 810 aircraft.
It’s an aerospace startup finding a defence customer for its core technology before the airliner flies. That’s become a common move.
Built around the pallet
The design starts from logistics. Each Battery Box is built on a 147E standard military pallet, and four fit on a 463L pallet, the workhorse of US and allied airlift. EVIO says stacking units that way can deliver megawatt-level power at a remote site and cut transport costs. It claims three to five times the energy storage of competing options, without giving a kWh figure.
The uses listed are broad: Arctic and tactical operations, naval, land and air platforms, disaster relief and remote mining. The common thread is running communications, sensors and equipment quietly. A battery bank lets a site shut its generators off for long stretches, which cuts fuel convoys, noise and heat signature. All three matter when the enemy is hunting for exactly those signals with drones and thermal cameras.
CEO Michael Derman put it plainly: “Defence operators need dependable power that can move with them.”
The Arctic test
Cold is the hard part. Lithium-ion cells lose capacity and charge badly at low temperatures, and the Canadian North is where Ottawa is spending more as it rebuilds its Arctic presence. EVIO says thermal management and performance in extreme cold are development priorities.
The schedule is long. Prototype testing runs in the first half of 2027, covering pack engineering, cell characterization and multi-cell thermal runaway tests. A fully operational product is due in the first quarter of 2028. There’s no contract or named customer yet.
The appeal for EVIO is clear. Aircraft-grade battery packs have to meet harsh weight and safety rules, and that work can earn money on the ground years before certification of the 810. The appeal for defence buyers is a Canadian-made alternative in a battery supply chain that still runs mostly through China. Whether the Battery Box gets bought depends on the numbers EVIO hasn’t published yet: capacity, weight and how it holds up at minus 40.