ElringKlinger announced a major order for cell contacting systems. Names were not disclosed, but the Group will supply the German plant of a global battery manufacturer starting in the first half of 2022, which will produce battery systems there for the series platform of a German premium OEM.

The ultracapacitor manufacturer Skeleton Technologies from Estonia has entered into a strategic partnership with the Japanese trading company Marubeni, which is also investing an undisclosed amount in Skeleton.

The ‘Swedish Electric Transport Laboratory’ or SEEL for short, designed to make the country a hotbed for e-mobility, will grow larger than planned. The partners, which include Volvo and Scania as well as Chalmers University of Technology and RISE, now designated three sites.

General Motors is planning to build a second plant in the US to manufacture battery cells for electric vehicles as part of its joint venture with LG. In response to a media report that GM was close to making a decision, the carmaker itself confirmed the plans.

The Spanish state apparently wants to build a battery cell factory for electric cars as part of a public-private consortium with the Volkswagen brand Seat and the energy company Iberdrola.

Rivian apparently has plans for solid-state batteries: The US electric car start-up is currently looking for engineers to develop solid-state batteries through job advertisements. Rivian is apparently planning to set up a production line.

Vietnamese electric car startup VinFast has announced a joint venture with Taiwanese battery cell manufacturer ProLogium to accelerate the commercialisation of solid-state battery-electric cars in Vietnam. The cells are expected to be used in VinFast’s electric cars as early as 2023.

The European research project INN-BALANCE to develop a new generation of components for fuel cell vehicles has been extended until October 2021 to complete outstanding system tests. The project is dedicated to optimising peripheral fuel cell components.

They are the only manufacturer of solid-state batteries for electric vehicles on an industrial scale – and yet they are hardly in the spotlight: French Bolloré subsidiary Blue Solutions developed and commercialised batteries with solid-state electrolyte years ago. Their most prominent customer is Daimler.

Hyzon Motors announced plans for the construction of a factory for fuel cell membrane electrode assemblies (MEA) for use in commercial vehicles. They claim the plant will be the largest of its kind in the United States.

The US-American company Nuvera Fuel Cells, an automotive supplier, announced the expansion of its hydrogen fuel cell engine testing capabilities with the commissioning of a new large-scale durability testing facility in Italy.

Fisker has abandoned its plans for solid-state batteries. Henrik Fisker stated in an interview that he made the decision more than a year ago. In his opinion, series production is still at least seven years away.

The University of Bayreuth, together with renowned industrial partners such as Tesla Germany and Varta Microbattery, will develop novel battery separators made of glass. The joint project, called GlasSeLIB (glass separators for lithium-ion batteries), started today.

The South Korean SK Group, which recently acquired almost ten per cent of the shares in the US fuel cell specialist Plug Power, presented a long-term, multi-billion-dollar plan to enter the hydrogen economy even more comprehensively.

The Austrian mineral oil company OMV and Austrian Post AG want to create the preconditions for Austrian Post to be able to run 2,000 fuel cell trucks on green hydrogen by 2030. To this end, both companies have now signed a memorandum of understanding.

Toyota is preparing to sell fuel cell modules in Japan. The compact system modules are expected to be sold from this spring to companies that develop and manufacture fuel cell products for a variety of different applications.

Daimler is considering building a research facility for battery recycling on the site of the Daimler press plant in Kuppenheim, Germany, according to media reports. Daimler is also looking for a location for a later regular operation.

Recycling start-up Redwood Materials, founded by ex-Tesla CTO JB Straubel, is partnering with Envision AESC, the battery business sold by Nissan to Envision Group. Specifically, Redwood Materials will recycle cells from Envision AESC’s US production facility in Smyrna.

Nikola has now announced the details of its fuel cell truck plans in North America. Following the launch of North American production of the battery-electric Tre, Nikola plans to introduce two FCEV trucks.

The Korean battery cell manufacturer Samsung SDI has announced that it will invest the equivalent of around 740 million euros in the expansion of its battery factory in Göd, Hungary, near Budapest.

Hyundai has selected CATL as another battery cell supplier for its electric cars based on the E-GMP platform – but probably only those vehicles that will be launched after 2023. This was reported by South Korean media and Hyundai has yet to confirm the deal.

The Korean company Posco Chemical has announced that it will invest 275.8 billion won (about 204 million euros) to further increase its production capacities for cathode materials for use in electric car batteries. Plants in China and Europe are probably also conceivable in the future.

Blackstone Technology, the German subsidiary of Swiss-based Blackstone Resources, has unveiled a new lithium-ion battery cell based on LFP technology, manufactured using an in-house patented 3D printing technology, which is expected to enter volume production this summer.

Daimler’s partnership with the Chinese battery cell manufacturer Farasis Energy is in danger of collapsing, according to a media report. Since Farasis was firmly planned as a supplier in the manufacturer’s electrification offensive, this could have a sensitive impact on the Stuttgart-based company’s plans.

In a two-year project called QuESt, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials are using a quantum computer to research new materials for more powerful batteries and fuel cells.

The battery cell manufacturer SVOLT, which emerged from the Chinese carmaker Great Wall, is expanding its production capacities in China. New factories are planned in Huzhou in China’s Zhejiang province and in Suining in Sichuan province, each with annual capacities of 20 GWh.

An unofficial fuel cell alliance is forming in France as Faurecia will supply hydrogen tanks for the new fleet of FC commercial vehicles Renault plans to launch at the end of this year. Faurecia will design and manufacture these tanks in France and is already preparing for expansion.

The solid-state battery specialist and Volkswagen partner QuantumScape has announced in the context of the announcement of its business figures that it will build a pilot plant in San José, California. Called QS-0, the plant is expected to be capable of producing over 100,000 units of solid-state cells per year.

The French supplier Faurecia has acquired a majority stake in CLD, one of the largest manufacturers of high-pressure tanks in China. With this move, the French company is betting on the further growth of the hydrogen market in China.

Nissan’s car plant in Barcelona that the carmaker announced last year would close, could be transformed into a battery production plant for electric cars to save thousands of jobs, according to a media report. There are said to be prominent interested parties already.