The US Inflation Reduction Act was intended to boost investment in US battery manufacturing, and it appears to be working—so well, in fact, that European battery producers are becoming alarmed. The European Battery Alliance (EBA), a group of around 800 industry stakeholders that was founded in 2017, has presented what it calls a “crisis proposal”… Read more »
Tag: The Tech
Planning permission granted for lithium hydroxide refinery in Teesside, UK
Tees Valley Lithium (TVL), a subsidiary of Alkemy Capital Investments, has received planning permission to build a lithium hydroxide refinery at the Wilton International Chemicals Park in Teesside, UK, following an environmental impact assessment and local consultation over an 18-month period. Construction on the $300-million facility, which will supply the EV battery industry, will begin in 2023, and… Read more »
Charging lithium-ion cells at different rates boosts EV battery pack life, per Stanford study
Stanford University researchers have found a way to make lithium-ion battery packs last longer and suffer less deterioration from fast charging. In “Extending Life of Lithium-Ion Battery Systems by Embracing Heterogeneities via an Optimal Control-Based Active Balancing Strategy,” published in IEEE Xplore, the researchers explain how actively managing the amount of current flowing to each… Read more »
Envision AESC to build 30 GWh gigafactory in South Carolina
Japanese battery player Envision AESC plans to invest some $810 million to build a battery gigafactory in Florence, South Carolina. The 1.5 million-square-foot plant will produce batteries to power the BMW Group’s next-generation EVs. By 2030, BMW plans to produce at least six fully electric models at its plant in Spartanburg. The investment marks the… Read more »
Sandia publishes study on EV charging infrastructure vulnerabilities
Potential vulnerabilities in EV charging infrastructure range from the skimming of credit card information to the use of cloud servers to hijack an entire charger network. In “Review of Electric Vehicle Charger Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities, Potential Impacts, and Defenses,”published in the scientific journal Energies, Jay Johnson, an electrical engineer at Sandia National Laboratories, reveals the results… Read more »
BMW to co-locate battery assembly and vehicle production plants in Hungary
BMW is building a battery assembly plant in Hungary for its Neue Klasse vehicles. It will be located on the site of the Debrecen vehicle production plant, for which construction was begun about six months ago. Markus Fallböhmer, BMW’s Senior VP of Battery Production, explains: “The BMW iFACTORY is also about ensuring short distances for… Read more »
ZF’s new e-drives feature multiple innovations
ZF has introduced new electric drives with a modular and compact design for electric passenger cars and light commercial vehicles. The new e-drives, which incorporate an electric motor, gearbox, power electronics and DC-DC converters, will be available on the market as a complete system starting in 2025, but the company will bring individual components into… Read more »
FREYR Battery to use Aleees technology to produce LFP active cathode material
Cell manufacturer FREYR Battery has entered into an agreement with Aleees, a Taiwan-based LFP cathode battery material producer. The agreement gives FREYR a worldwide license to produce and sell LFP cathode material based on Aleees’s technology, and to build production facilities using Aleees’s industrial expertise. Aleees offers complete LFP cathode battery material manufacturing technology and… Read more »
It’s about time: the 6 phases of thermal runaway propagation
Thermal runaway propagation is a complex challenge. No matter the cell chemistry or pack architecture, lithium-ion batteries are at risk of experiencing a thermal runaway event. Although there is no one-size-fits-all solution, battery engineers do not need to reinvent the wheel when developing a solution to meet critical safety requirements. By understanding the intricacies of… Read more »
Qualcomm and Renault to co-develop architecture for software-defined EVs
Renault and Qualcomm Technologies plan to collaborate on plans for a centralized computer architecture for Renault’s next generation of software-defined vehicles (SDVs), based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Digital Chassis. The architecture will support digital cockpit, connectivity and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). Qualcomm will also invest in Ampere, Renault’s dedicated electric and software company. Starting in… Read more »
