In South Korea, Kia Motors and SK Innovation have joined forces to build a circular economy for electric vehicle batteries. This involves the follow-up use of end-of-life electric car batteries as stationary energy storage units as well as the recycling of materials such as lithium, nickel and cobalt.

The partners of the GUW+ model project are dedicated to the re-use of batteries from electric city buses and will now realise a stationary energy storage system in a rectifier substation of the ÜSTRA based on batteries that were previously used in eCitaro city buses.

Charging infrastructure provider Jolt Energy and infrastructure consultancy AECOM have announced an agreement to roll out ultra-fast charging stations in major European and North American city centres.

Volvo Cars plan to develop recycling loops in a global initiative to reduce CO2 emissions and expenses. This involves recycling the high-voltage batteries from plug-in hybrids and electric cars, among other things.

Shell and Alfen have installed a 350 kWh battery-based charging solution at a filling station in Zaltbommel, the Netherlands, as part of a pilot project. The system operates with two charging points of 175 kW each and is simultaneously integrated into a virtual power plant for “peak shaving”.

FreeWire Technologies has gained $50 million in a Series C funding round, led by Riverstone Holdings, with participation from current shareholders such as BP ventures. The new investment will enable FreeWire to accelerate international market expansion of its Boost Charger and expand production capacity.

FCA Italy and Engie EPS have been awarded a contract by Italian grid operator Terna to manage 25 megawatts of electricity. This should provide ultra-fast frequency control services to Terna via a planned vehicle-to-grid (V2G) system at FCA’s Mirafiori headquarters site.

In a former coal-fired power plant in Elverlingsen, Germany, a new stationary battery storage system made up of of electric car batteries has been put into operation. The project was jointly developed by Renault, the technology company The Mobility House and the electricity storage system expert Fenecon.

Northvolt has put its first battery system into operation at a public charging station for electric cars in Västerås, Sweden, in cooperation with the local energy supplier Mälarenergi.

Rumours about Tesla’s plans to offer its own electricity tariffs have been circulating for several months. This plan is now moving forward in Great Britain where homeowners with an installed solar system and Tesla Powerwall can now become part of the Tesla Energy Plan.

FEV has developed a mobile rapid charging station for the energy supplier Uniper. The station is equipped with an energy storage device and can charge two electric cars simultaneously with a charging capacity of up to 75 kW. The station is to be offered as “Infrastructure as a Service” – once the energy storage unit […]

The Norwegian company Freyr is planning a 32 GWh battery cell factory in Norway and has now signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Siemens Energy and Elkem each on the supply of cells and anode active materials.

Renault is putting two new projects for the second-life use of batteries from electric vehicles in the spotlight. Both ‘Advanced Battery Storage’ in France and ‘SmartHubs’ in the UK are aimed at helping to balance power grids as the share of renewable energy increases.

Fastned and Tesla have opened the ‘Ladepark Kreuz Hilden’ last night. Equipped with 20 superchargers and eight Fastned charging stations, it will be one of the largest charge parks for each of the two companies in its final stage. Our reporter Sebastian Schaal was at the opening.

Porsche is using a mobile charging system in the form of a truck trailer that allows ultra-rapid charging at Taycan presentations across the world. Made by battery storage specialist ADS-TEC Energy, the system delivers up to 320 kWh in any weather, real-life use shows.

Toyota and Honda are developing a mobile system called Moving e for emergency power supply in the event of natural disasters. The system utilises a fuel cell bus from Toyota laden with portable batteries and power output devices from Honda.

Hitachi ABB Power Grids has presented Grid-eMotion Fleet, a ‘grid-to-plug’ charging system for electric buses with a system-based approach. The solution has been developed to charge more vehicles with less infrastructure.

The Norwegian shipping company The Fjords has put a second purely electric ferry into service. After the ‘Future of the Fjords’ already went into service in 2018, the sister ship ‘Legacy of the Fjords’ will follow.

Last year, the Swiss Federal Roads Office (ASTRA) awarded five bidders the contract for the construction of rapid charging stations at 100 Swiss rest stops. The first of these fast chargers has now been opened on the A2.

EV powertrain developer Lightning Systems has just announced Lightning Mobile, a mobile DC fast charger for electric vehicles. The mobile fast charger can be quickly deployed to provide fast roadside charging to support the operation of electric fleet commercial vehicles.

FreeWire Technologies announced the successful closing of a $25 million Series B and venture debt financing round. The funding was led by existing investor BP Ventures, together with new investors ABB Technology Ventures and Energy Innovation Capital.

The San Diego based Envision Solar announced the official launch of the upgraded generation of its EV ARC solar-powered EV charging infrastructure products. They are already used in more than 100 US municipalities.

Honda is expanding its partnership in Europe with the French recycling specialist SNAM. In future, SNAM will collect batteries from Honda dealers and authorised recycling facilities in 22 countries and test them for their suitability for recycling and further processing.

Volkswagen is bringing its flexible (ie semi-mobile) fast-charging (HPC) stations to China via a joint venture. A date for the planned start of production has also been set but the approval of the authorities for the joint venture is still pending.

Electrify America has announced the construction of 30 solar-powered charging stations in rural California that are not connected to the power grid. The VW subsidiary launched after DieselGate is spending around two million US dollars on this initiative.

The Swiss energy group Alpiq and Mercedes-Benz Energy have concluded a supply agreement for the stationary use of batteries from electric vehicles. The storage unit has a capacity of 1.5 MW and a gross capacity of 1.4 MWh, which is also possible to scale up.

Volkswagen wants to push ahead with the rollout of its mobile rapid charging stations with battery storage in cooperation with the energy company E.ON. The partners have now presented the prototype of a new, flexible ultra-fast charging station in Essen.

A new initiative from utility Uniper envisions a network of mobile, that is grid-independent, fast-chargers deployed throughout cluster regions. The firm revealed a few details ahead of the launch such as the stations serving as charging units where required as well as energy storage when clustered together at depots.

VW has distributed flexible rapid-charging points throughout the Wolfsburg city area, which EV drivers can use free of charge for 80 weeks. Some of the charging pillars are to be used flexibly at major events.

The University of Warwick has developed a procedure for Nissan that allows a quick assessment of the suitability of used electric car batteries for use in stationary energy storage. The classification works at the battery pack and battery module level.