Varta has now received funding positive decisions from the Germany federal government and the states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg concerning 300 million euros for projects involving battery cells. The subsidy was approved by the EU Commission in December 2019 and the decisions have now been sent to Varta.
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CATL has begun construction of an innovation laboratory at its headquarters in Ningde in the eastern Chinese province of Fujian. The laboratory, named 21C Lab, will focus on the development of next-generation batteries and new energy conversion systems.
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More details about Tesla’s largely secret Roadrunner project to produce its battery cells have become apparent through a document now published by the city of Fremont. Tesla has applied for permission to build a second floor in its battery production plant Tera.
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The EU-funded project COBRA (CObalt-free Batteries for FutuRe Automotive Applications) aims to develop next-generation cobalt-free batteries. The project also aims to eliminate the need for other critical materials.
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There is now a provisional date for Tesla’s Battery Day when the Californian company will be presenting the details of their cell production and will include the presentation of a “cell production system”.
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Nissan has announced a collaboration with Chinese company Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery to develop next-generation batteries for its e-Power vehicles jointly. The negotiations also include a production system to ensure a stable supply capacity for the shared cells.
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Hyundai, Kia and LG Chem have launched a start-up competition to identify promising newcomers in the field of e-mobility. The ‘EV & Battery Challenge’ calls domestic and foreign start-ups developing technologies and business models for EVs and batteries.
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The commercial vehicle retrofitter Quantron has announced the Energon, a 44-tonne fuel cell truck with a range of around 700 kilometres. The vehicle can be ordered immediately, and deliveries are to start next year.
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Tesla has signed a new three-year price agreement with Panasonic to manufacture and supply battery cells at Gigafactory 1 in Nevada. The general terms and conditions have also been adjusted in some points as part of the partnership.
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Glencore is apparently going to supply Tesla’s Gigafactory in Shanghai and the planned plant in Brandenburg with cobalt from the Congo. A recent article in the Financial Times already mentions concrete quantities to be delivered to Tesla.
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Volkswagen has announced an increase in its stake in QuantumScape. The car company is investing up to another 200 million dollars in the US battery specialist. The aim is to advance the joint development of solid state batteries and to prepare for their large-scale production.
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Despite the ongoing pandemic, BASF has confirmed the timetable for starting up its battery materials plants in Europe in 2022. Both sub-projects in Finland and Germany have recently made significant progress.
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The start-ups Britishvolt and AMTE Power have provided details of their plans to build a battery cell factory for electric cars with a capacity of 30 to 35 GWh with the support of the British Government. The first stage is set for completion by 2023.
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According to Nikola CEO Trevor Milton, the US manufacturer known mainly for its fuel cell and battery trucks is in talks with three car manufacturers for a joint venture to produce its electrically powered pickup truck ‘Badger’.
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According to insider information, BYD is considering building a battery cell factory in the UK to supply Jaguar Land Rover. Corresponding talks between BYD and JLR are currently underway. However, the unclear future trade relationship of Great Britain with the EU is delaying BYD’s decision.
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Toyota is founding a joint venture in China with FAW, Dongfeng, GAC, BAIC and SinoHytec for the joint development of fuel cell systems for commercial vehicles under the name of United Fuel Cell System R&D (FCRD).
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The US manufacturer Nikola, best known for its plans for fuel cell and battery trucks, has placed an order worth over 30 million dollars with the Norwegian hydrogen specialist Nel for the supply of electrolysers.
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The British research project RaRE has set itself the goal of setting up a continuous supply chain to integrate recycled rare earth magnets into electric vehicles. Bentley is one of the companies involved in the project, which is led by HyProMag, a spin-off from the University of Birmingham.
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The battery cell manufacturer Samsung SDI and their supplier of battery materials EcoPro BM are jointly investing the equivalent of around 97 million US dollars in a joint venture that the two South Korean companies have called EcoPro EM.
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The Swiss battery manufacturer Leclanché is entering into a partnership with the Eneris Group operating from Poland, as well as strategically repositioning itself. Several joint ventures in Europe are to be established for this purpose.
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The newly founded Norwegian company Morrow Batteries plans to build a battery cell factory for electric cars. In the final stage of expansion, the factory will have a capacity of 32 GWh. The first of the four planned expansion stages, each with 8 GWh, should be completed in 2024.
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The Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt and the Norwegian aluminium producer Norsk Hydro announce the formation of a joint venture to enable the recycling of battery materials and aluminium from electric vehicles in the Norwegian market.
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A new EU project called ASTRABAT has been created to push forward with the development of solid-state battery cells. The aim of the project is to create such cells for electric vehicles and other applications in Europe. The project consortium comprises 14 partners from eight European countries.
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Daimler is building its battery production capacity globally. Daimler subsidiary Accumotive has increased its production volume and will soon be able to produce more than 500,000 battery systems per year. The plant is also preparing for future electric EQ models in the compact segment.
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An update was published on the progress of the German ‘AutoStack Industrie’ project launched in 2017. The project will run until the end of 2021, involving five OEMs and various suppliers working together to bring key technologies for the production of stacks for fuel cell vehicles to industrial maturity.
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The battery system manufacturer Akasol has presented its business figures for the first quarter of 2020. Revenue and EBIT were both below the figures for the same quarter of the previous year – mainly due to corona-related production interruptions from the company’s own customers.
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There are now new details about the cobalt-free lithium-ion battery cells announced by SVOLT Energy Technology. Two versions of these cells are expected to be available next year: one with a nominal capacity of 115 Ah and one with 226 Ah.
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Tesla and Panasonic’s Gigafactory 1 in Nevada was profitable in Q1/2020, the CFO of Panasonic stated in the announcement of the current business figures. The plant, which the partners had begun building in 2014, was in the black for the second consecutive quarter.
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Reuters claims to have more details about Tesla’s battery cell plans. The announced “million-mile” battery is expected to come in early 2021 at the latest and may break the 100$/kWh barrier. Plus, Tesla now thinks in “terrafactories”.
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Lithium-sulfur battery specialist Oxis Energy has more concrete plans for series production of Li-S cells in Brazil: The company has leased a production facility from Mercedes-Benz Brazil in Juiz de Fora in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.
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