Mercedes-Benz has laid the symbolic foundation stone for the announced battery recycling factory in Kuppenheim. For the first stage of the plant – mechanical dismantling – commissioning is to start at the end of this year. Talks with the public sector about further expansion are still ongoing.
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The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) funds the development of a holistic recycling approach for lithium-ion batteries with 16.66 million euros as part of the LiBinfinity project.
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French manufacturer Alstom and Deutsche Bahn are now taking passengers onboard Alstom’s first fully approved electric train since this weekend in Baden-Württemberg. Further testing will start in Bavaria on 5 February and run throughout early May on all routes.
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A battery-electric train by Alstom has completed its maiden voyage on a rail route in Saxony, Germany. The prototype train developed together with TU Berlin started on a roundtrip in the city of Chemnitz. Electric trains of this type are scheduled to go into passenger service from December 2021.
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In a three-year project called eHaul, a German consortium of business and science is dedicated to developing an automated battery-swapping station for heavy electric trucks. Among others, the TU Berlin, the Fraunhofer IVI and Bosch are involved in the project.
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Public transport operator BVG in Berlin has taken delivery of the first articulated electric buses. A total of 17 Solaris Urbino 18 electric are now gradually taking up service on Line 200 with charging at Siemens pantographs at the terminal stops.
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The Berlin transport authority BVG has added the first articulated electric bus to its fleet as part of a research project. Besides, delivery of a total of 90 e-buses ordered from Solaris has begun with the Urbino 12 Electric models about to enter service now.
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A new scheme is to clean the air over the German capital by installing on-street charging infrastructure. With lamp post charging provider Ubitricity at the centre, the consortium is planning to add 1,600 public and private charge points to Berlin’s network beginning this year.
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Engineers of Thyssenkrupp, Atlas Elektronik, EvoLogics, the Technical University of Berlin and the University of Rostock are starting to develop a „Large Modifiable Underwater Mothership (MUM)“ to explore the deep sea. Its propulsion is going to be based on a fuel cell system.
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Autonomous shuttle: French Ligier has shown its concept of a driverless shuttle at last week’s Bibendum in Chengdu, China and has partnered with Robosoft Technology to create the Easymile Company to market it. The EZ-10 features a camera-based system developed by the Institut Pascal.
phys.org, drivingtothefuture
Warren Buffet buys Duracell: Berkshire Hathaway Inc., one of the billionaire’s ventures, will acquire the battery maker for roughly three billion dollars. Rumour has it that the acquisition could be a play on EVs, as Berkshire Hathaway also holds a ten percent stake in Chinese car and battery maker BYD.
abcnews.go.com
Multifunctional catalyst: A team from Technische Universität Berlin reports developing cobalt-manganese-based spinel microspheres as highly efficient multifunctional catalysts that unify the electrochemical oxygen evolution reaction (OER) with oxidant-driven and photocatalytic water oxidation as well as oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in fuel cells and rechargeable metal-air batteries.
greencarcongress.com
The vampire is back: Since the latest 6.0 software update for the Model S, the issue of the so-called vampire drain is haunting several Tesla owners again. Apparently, ‘sleep mode’ is not working and causes the car to lose power for about 13 miles per night when not plugged in.
insideevs.com, teslamotors.com
