LONDON — Revolt Technology AS, a startup developing a rechargeable zinc-air battery, has appointed Ram Malhotra as chief executive officer replacing Nils Kristian Nakstad.

Malhotra was formerly chief operating officer of Mikron AG, Switzerland where he directed the components business in Asia and managed joint ventures in China and Malaysia. He has been asked to strengthen Revolt's position in the mobile battery technology market.

ReVolt(Trondheim, Norway), founded by Trygve Burchardt as a spinoff from contract research institute Sintef in 2004, has claimed its rechargeable metal-air battery represents a breakthrough in battery performance with a substantially higher energy density at a competitive price compared to other rechargeable batteries.

ReVolt claims its batteries are considerably less costly to manufacture than lithium-ion batteries and there are no toxic materials applied. If the technology could be scaled up for commercial manufacture it could potentially extend of the battery life of mobile electronic equipment, such as mobile phones, digital cameras, and PCs.

The company raised 7 million euro (about $8.5 million) from Northzone Ventures, Sofinnova Partners, Techno Venture Management (TVM), and Viking Ventures, in a first round of funding in June 2005.

While working with Amphenol Malhotra helped to transfer the manufacturing of components used by Nokia and Sony Ericsson to Asia. “Revolt is well positioned to deliver products that will change the way mobile handsets are developed and used,” he said. “The Revolt battery technology may enable handset OEMs and ODMs to fulfil the promise of forthcoming technologies within the mobile handset and fill the gap that exists in the run time with current battery technology and the end user needs.”

ReVolt has been included on the last two iterations of the Silicon 60, EE Times’ list of emerging startup companies.