(Sharecast News) - Solid-state battery technology developer Ilika announced a significant milestone in its Goliath roadmap on Monday, achieving the D4 development point.

The AIM-traded firm said the milestone was a design-freeze moment crucial to creating the P1 prototype - an essential step on its journey towards its minimum viable product (MVP) slated for 2025.

It said the P1 Goliath prototype would be a solid-state pouch cell featuring an NMC cathode and a silicon anode.

With newly attainable data sets, the company said it was now prepared to produce P1 samples of four-layer stacks for sale to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for testing.

The company would manufacture and test pouch cells in the coming six months based on the D4 development point.

The efforts would culminate in delivering fully characterised P1 cells to as many as 15 customers in 2024.

Ilika said it was engaged in discussions with its customer base, primarily consisting of automotive OEMs, tier-one automotive suppliers, and consumer appliance companies, all eager to integrate Goliath batteries into their products.

"Achieving our D4 development point is an important milestone on our technology roadmap, as it forms the basis of our first prototype product pilot run, with the objective of sharing prototypes with our customer base in 2024," said chief executive officer Graeme Purdy.

"This achievement is a clear demonstration that the Ilika team is working very efficiently with the available resources to achieve credible outcomes for our customers within the ambitious timeframes that we have set."

At 1405 GMT, shares in Ilika were up 22.03% at 36p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.