Daimler is accelerating into the electric future. Last year the company spent about half of its 5-billion-euro R&D budget on electrification and other emission-reducing technologies, and announced that it would introduce 10 new plug-ins by 2017. The Mercedes S550 Plug-In Hybrid, the group’s third model with a cord, went on sale in the US in… Read more »
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Panasonic shutters Beijing battery factory to focus on high-end market
Battery behemoth Panasonic has announced that it will stop making lithium-ion batteries at its factory in Beijing, eliminating 1,300 jobs. A sign of waning demand for EVs? Nope, just the opposite. The 15-year-old plant produces batteries for mobile phones and digital cameras, and Panasonic plans to move away from these products (which are steadily being… Read more »
Navigant: Global market for automotive Li-ion batteries will quadruple by 2024
The battery business is booming, and a new report from Navigant Research aims to flesh out the picture with some facts and figures. “Advanced Energy Storage for Automotive Applications” predicts that the global market for automotive Li-ion batteries will grow from $7.8 billion in 2015 to $30.6 billion in 2024, an almost fourfold increase. Total… Read more »
3M licenses NMC patents to LG Chem
3M and LG Chem have formed a patent license agreement to allow the Korean battery-maker to use 3M’s formulation of nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) cathode materials in lithium-ion batteries. NMC, valued for its balance of power, energy, thermal stability and low cost, has been the subject of some rivalry and at least one lawsuit…. Read more »
Proterra CEO on the economics of the electric bus business
Venture capitalists assume a large amount of risk when they invest in early-stage companies. They do so because of the potential for huge returns. To ensure that a portfolio of investments delivers the greatest return with the least risk, VCs spend a considerable amount of time evaluating companies, looking for the key ingredients of success…. Read more »
DOE report examines opportunities for US battery manufacturers
Asia currently dominates automotive lithium-ion cell production – it controls around 79% of the market. However, a recent report by the DOE’s Clean Energy Manufacturing Analysis Center (CEMAC) found that the US has a growing opportunity in the industry, which is expected to swell from the current $9 billion to $14.3 billion by 2020. The… Read more »
Sumitomo Chemical increases production capacity for battery separators
Sumitomo Chemical is ramping up production capacity for its Pervio lithium-ion secondary battery separators. Production at the company’s Ohe Works in Niihama, Japan will be raised to approximately 1.3 times the current capacity by next spring. The company also plans to build a new plant for Pervio at its subsidiary in South Korea, to start… Read more »
Nissan, GM and Toyota repurpose used EV batteries for stationary storage
Tesla may have made it trendy, but the California company is far from the only automaker exploring the commercial energy storage market, which is expected to grow from $200 million in 2012 to $19 billion in 2017, according to research firm IHS CERA. Nissan has joined forces with Green Charge Networks to deploy second-life EV… Read more »
LG Chem Power CEO: We’re the Li-ion leader for PEVs because of material science
Q&A with LG Chem Power’s CEO: Dr. Prabhakar Patil on how the company became a Li-ion battery front-runner, the economics of building batteries, and why it spends little energy on what comes after lithium. Among Tier 1 automotive suppliers of lithium-ion cells, LG Chem is off to a clear lead, based on the number of announced… Read more »
Is String Cell battery technology the future for EVs?
When it comes to finding a way to charge EVs more quickly, human ingenuity has come up with some pretty wide-ranging solutions, from battery-swapping to flow batteries that store energy in tanks of liquid electrolyte. The latest innovative idea comes from startup Tanktwo, and is called a String Battery. Tanktwo’s system replaces a vehicle’s battery pack with a container filled… Read more »