The EX360e project began in 2018 as a joint research initiative between a Scandinavian subsea engineering firm and a Japanese materials science institute. Their mandate was simple yet audacious: build a machine that could operate for 10,000 hours continuously in any environment where human access is impossible or fatal. The result, released in prototype form in 2023 and entering limited production in 2025, is the EX360e.
The most radical departure is the power train. The EX360e ditches lithium-ion chemistry entirely, instead utilizing a with a secondary beta-voltaic trickle charger. This system has no liquid electrolyte to freeze or boil. The entire power module is hermetically sealed in a vacuum-deposited silicon carbide housing. Energy density is lower than the best Li-ion (approx. 180 Wh/kg vs. 250 Wh/kg), but cycle life exceeds 50,000 full discharges, and operational temperature range is -100°C to +200°C. ex360e
For decades, industries operating at the fringes of human geography—deep-sea mining, arctic drilling, high-altitude construction, and nuclear decommissioning—have faced a persistent, expensive problem: the catastrophic failure of standard electro-mechanical systems. When temperatures plunge to -60°C, when corrosive salt spray becomes an aerosol, or when radiation levels exceed safe thresholds, conventional equipment lasts minutes, not months. Enter the , a platform that is not merely an incremental upgrade but a fundamental rethinking of how machinery survives, operates, and communicates in the planet’s most punishing environments. The EX360e project began in 2018 as a