A partnership with Factorial Energy delivered more than 30% additional range in first flight testing, before a single engineering optimization. It is the clearest evidence yet that the pack is where endurance is won or lost.

Most unmanned platforms never reach the range they were engineered for. The airframe is optimized, the propulsion is optimized, the payload is optimized. Then a standard off-the-shelf pack at around 250 Wh/kg goes in, and a large share of the available flight time disappears before the vehicle leaves the ground.

That gap is what Tulip Tech exists to close. Recently, it closed further than usual.

More than 30% range, before optimization

Tulip Tech and Factorial Energy (Nasdaq: FAC) signed a strategic partnership following customer flight testing of Factorial’s solid-state and lithium-metal cells in a Tulip pack. The result was more than 30% additional flight range, recorded before any engineering optimization of the integration.

The agreement establishes a commercialization framework covering joint customer engagement and a roadmap toward volume production.

Bernd Rietberg, Founder and CEO of Tulip Tech:

“Battery performance is the ceiling on almost every drone mission, and Tulip’s job is to raise that ceiling by matching each mission to the best cell technology available. In this program, Factorial’s solid-state and lithium-metal platform delivered more than a 30% range gain in initial testing — a standout result that has earned its place in our portfolio. We’re excited to move from testing into commercialization, and to keep pushing UAV performance further alongside all of our cell partners.”

Siyu Huang, CEO of Factorial:

“Tulip has been an excellent partner to scale together with speed and reach. Last year our automotive cell platform powered a historic 1,200+ kilometer drive on a single charge. This year it’s the sky. Our first long distance flight delivered more than 30% longer range. Where lithium-ion runs out of road, lithium metal is just taking off.”

Why the cell, and not something else

A 30% gain from a change of chemistry is only striking if you assume the pack is fixed. It is not. It is the largest untapped variable left in most unmanned platforms.

Tulip’s process starts before any cell is selected. Every engagement opens with the mission: operating profile, environment, duty cycle, form factor, volumes, timeline. Only then does cell selection begin, across a database spanning more than 50 suppliers and thousands of cells — or, where nothing off the shelf fits, a custom cell developed for the platform.

The results are specific to the platform, not to a spec sheet:

• DeltaQuad Evo — flight time extended to eight hours on a high-energy 450 Wh/kg pack, with no other hardware changes.
• Acecore Noa — 63% longer flight time from a 39 Ah lithium-metal pack at 360 Wh/kg, retrofittable to every Noa already in the field.
• Lobster Robotics — 60% more battery life in the same hull, because underwater, buoyancy makes weight every bit as unforgiving as aerodynamics does in the air.

Adding Factorial’s platform does not replace that method. It widens the range of missions the method can solve.

Proof comes from the field, not the lab

Tulip has produced and delivering more than 100,000 battery packs in a single month, and serves over 250 customers across defense, security, and commercial sectors, including NASA. Every pack is validated individually — voltage, internal resistance, DCIR uniformity, capacity — and ships with its own datasheet. The field failure rate is under 1%.

That validation regime exists because the packs are specified around what fails in operational conditions, not around what performs in a test chamber. Operational feedback from front-line users flows straight back into product development, which is what allows a new chemistry to be assessed honestly rather than optimistically.

What this means for OEMs

Two pressures are converging on anyone building unmanned systems. Missions are getting longer, riskier and more data-hungry. At the same time, procurement rules in Europe and the United States are tightening around where cells and packs come from.

Higher energy density usually costs you sourcing flexibility. Tulip’s supplier network is built to avoid that trade: more than 50 partners with non-Chinese sourcing options, packs assembled in the Netherlands, and full compliance documentation with every shipment. Layering Factorial’s chemistry into that supply chain means an OEM can take the density gain without giving up the sourcing position the program depends on.

Airframes and autonomy will keep improving. But the component that decides whether the mission completes is still the one most teams specify last.