Forsee introduces ‘Flex-Plus’ battery for heavy vehicles
The French battery manufacturer Forsee Power presented the ‘Flex Plus’ new battery system for equipping heavy electric vehicles such as buses, trucks and off-road vehicles. Only a month ago, the company presented a battery system for medium-sized trucks and minibuses.
Forsee states that Flex Plus is particularly suitable for vehicles that are designed for opportunity charging or that have a hybrid drive or fuel cell drive. What all these applications have in common is that they tend to require smaller batteries. The new NMC-based product is available with either 52 kWh or 56 kWh capacity and, according to Forsee Power, is compatible with both 650-volt and 800-volt systems.
The manufacturer claims a service life of 8,000 cycles. Flex Plus can be charged with a continuous current of 160 amps at a C-rate of 2C, with a peak rate of 5C when charging and discharging at 400 amps, they say. Other features of the battery mentioned by the French are liquid thermal management and easy accessibility for repairs and maintenance. The power distribution unit, for example, is supposed to be removable.
Flex Plus is the latest member of Forsee’s Plus format product family, which already includes Zen Plus, a battery system launched in 2022, also for heavy-duty commercial vehicles, with an energy density of 180 Wh/kg and optional capacities of 74, 77, 79, 82 and 84 kWh. With this system, Forsee covers the classic BEV applications in the commercial vehicle segment. A month ago, the company also introduced Zen Lite, a system for medium-duty trucks and minibuses.
For all systems, Forsee Power does not manufacture battery cells itself, but assembles purchased cells into battery systems – primarily for use in e-buses and other electric commercial vehicles, but also for maritime applications. One of the cell suppliers is LG Energy Solution; this agreement was only extended at the beginning of 2022. In addition, a cooperation with the Chinese cell producer CALB was announced a few months ago. Under the agreement, Forsee Power will integrate CALB’s NMC cells with “very high energy density” into its battery systems for electric commercial vehicles.
The French company currently has production sites in France, Poland, China, India and soon in the USA. According to the manufacturer, the combined production capacity at these sites is currently 3 GWh and is expected to “increase every year from now on to meet the growing demand for the electrification of heavy and light vehicles”.
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