Under a project sponsored by the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, Daimler and the Fraunhofer Institute, together with German conglomerate thyssenkrupp and engineering firm IAV, are co-developing the design and production of bipolar batteries. Bipolar batteries are still in the laboratory stage and have not moved past pilot scale. The project, named EMBATT-goes-FAB,… Read more »
DENSO, an enormous automotive supplier with headquarters in Japan and 220 facilities in 35 countries, plans to produce a next-generation inverter for US OEMs at its plant in Maryville, Tennessee. The Maryville location will be the site of one billion dollars of new investment in electrification, connectivity and safety products over the next few years…. Read more »
Battery manufacturer Amprius is supplying lithium-ion cells to Airbus’s Zephyr program. Using Amprius’s cells, which contain a 100% silicon anode, the Zephyr S solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) recently flew more than 25 days, setting a new record for stratospheric flight. The Zephyr S is a high-altitude pseudo-satellite (HAPS), which combines the persistence of a… Read more »
UK-based fuel cell specialist Ceres Power and Chinese automotive manufacturer Weichai Power have agreed to create a joint venture to manufacture fuel cells for the Chinese bus, commercial vehicle and stationary power markets. The two companies have agreed to create a £9-million fuel cell manufacturing JV in China, accelerating development of the 30 kW SteelCell… Read more »
Alliance Ventures, the venture capital arm of Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, has joined heavyweights LG Chem and Samsung in investing in Enevate, a battery technology company based in Irvine, California. Enevate licenses its HD-Energy technology, which is designed to offer fast charging times, superior low-temperature operation and low cost, to various battery and EV manufacturers and suppliers worldwide…. Read more »
Battery developer SK Innovation plans to invest $1.67 billion to build a new EV battery manufacturing plant in Georgia. The new plant will be located in Jackson County, Georgia, and is expected to create more than 2,000 jobs. Construction will occur in two phases, beginning in early 2019. The SK Group already has significant investments… Read more »
Nidec, which was founded in 1973 as a Japanese manufacturer of small electric motors, and now employs some 100,000 people in 40 countries, has developed an integrated traction motor system called the E-Axle. Nidec’s E-Axle fully integrates the reduction gearbox and inverter. Designed to be compact and lightweight, it weighs only 83 kg, and offers… Read more »
SiNode Systems, a Chicago-based materials developer, and JNC, a Tokyo-based specialty chemical manufacturer, have announced the formation of NanoGraf, a joint venture focused on commercializing materials for the Li-ion battery industry. Via the new JV, NanoGraf will gain production facilities in Japan, expanded global distribution channels, over 50 patents, and two research facilities. NanoGraf’s technology… Read more »
Sponsored by Scheugenpflug It runs with no emissions, it’s completely autonomous and, what’s more, it’s networked with the entire world – this is what the car of the future will look like. Thanks to rapid advances in the field of electronics, the vision of a (fully) autonomous vehicle, which appeared unrealistic just a few years ago,… Read more »
Siemens has acquired Munich-based COMSA Computer und Software, the maker of LDorado, an automotive harness design and engineering software suite that’s quite popular in Germany. The COMSA team will join the Mentor business, part of the Siemens PLM Software business unit. As anyone who’s ever tried to track down an elusive electrical problem knows, the… Read more »