Microvast to supply battery for bus manufacturer Safra
Battery manufacturer Microvast has signed a framework agreement with French bus manufacturer Safra. Over the next three years, Microvast will supply Safra with three standardised battery products for the company’s electric and hybrid buses, as well as for retrofitting the bus fleet.
The framework agreement provides for the supply of up to 2,000 battery packs from Microvast over the said three years. The first of these were delivered this month, according to Microvast.
Microvast says it was awarded the contract “primarily because of its range of standardised and certified battery packs”. The packs can be assembled in a modular fashion as well as flexibly connected in parallel or in series, the manufacturer says.
It is not clear from Microvast’s announcement which cells and packs Safra has chosen – after all, it is a framework contract that covers various vehicles and drives. Last year, Microvast presented two new pouch cells: in October, a flexible cell that is to be suitable for passenger cars, commercial vehicles, trains and boats was presented, and in December a variant that has been optimised for commercial vehicles followed.
Safra plans to launch its electric bus at the end of 2021, which will then be equipped with Microvast batteries. Until its market launch, the two companies want to “explore further opportunities in the fuel cell bus business and in retrofitting buses”.
This February, Microvast opened its new European headquarters in Ludwigsfelde near Berlin. In addition to the administrative headquarters, a production facility is also located there. In the opening announcement, the company had still stated that the assembly of the battery modules (the production line comes from Thyssenkrupp) was to start in March.
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