German automakers know they need to establish a European battery industry, and they’re taking steps to chip away at the stranglehold Asian firms have on the market. Audi is reportedly planning an assembly plant for EV battery packs near its plant in Ingolstadt, Germany. Electrive, citing the Korean blog Guru, tells us that Audi intends… Read more »
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BMW revamps battery materials supply chain, signs supply contract for raw lithium
BMW Group has signed a €540-million contract with China’s Ganfeng Lithium for the supply of raw lithium from mines in Australia. The carmaker has restructured its supply chains for its upcoming fifth generation of battery cells. From 2020 on, it will directly source both lithium and cobalt. The raw materials will then pass on to… Read more »
SK Innovation to build second EV battery plant in China
According to a recent article in Business Korea, SK Innovation – a subsidiary of Korea’s giant SK conglomerate – is planning to invest $1.05 billion USD to build an EV battery manufacturing plant in Yancheng, China. The new plant will join the company’s pre-existing battery plant in Changzhou. SK Innovation’s plans for the new plant… Read more »
Battery cooling performance: Comparing liquid-dispense gap fillers with thermal pads
Sponsored by LORD Corporation The focus of LORD Corporation’s study is to investigate how the superior thermal transfer provided by gap fillers versus gap pads affects cooling of actual battery modules. Battery modules were assembled using LORD gap fillers with thermal conductivity of 2 and 4 W/m·K, and also with commercially available gap pads of… Read more »
Webasto starts battery production, prepares to enter China
German automotive supplier Webasto has begun producing EV batteries at the company’s manufacturing plant in Schierling, Germany. The first battery packs will go to an unnamed European bus maker. Three years ago, Webasto decided to branch out of its core business of roofs and heaters and expand into electromobility, with charging solutions and battery systems…. Read more »
Is China opening up its EV battery market to foreign suppliers?
China has eliminated its list of “recommended battery suppliers,” according to the industry ministry. Foreign battery-makers hope this will open up the country’s market for EV batteries. When the list was first published in 2015, it included only Chinese firms, a policy designed to aid China’s domestic battery sector. Foreign battery-builders complained that the list… Read more »
BMW signs billion-dollar battery supply contract with China’s CATL
Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) is on a serious roll – China’s biggest battery builder issued a successful IPO on the Shenzhen stock exchange earlier this month, and has been announcing new supply contracts left and right – Daimler, Honda, Nissan/Renault, SAAB successor NEVS and EV startup Byton are now customers, and there are rumors… Read more »
A look at Lucid Motors: Q&A with CTO Peter Rawlinson
The legacy automakers are slowly and methodically developing new EVs, with various levels of enthusiasm, but the most ambitious plans for new vehicles are coming from a handful of EV startups. Most of these pioneers of the new auto industry share a formula: deep-pocketed investors (many from China), former Tesla employees on staff, and plans… Read more »
Chile selects two companies for lithium projects
Chile’s state development agency, CORFO, has selected the Chilean firm Molymet and China’s Fulin Group (a joint venture between Samsung SDI and South Korea’s POSCO) to develop value-added lithium products in Chile. Within two years, the companies are expected to be ready to produce some 58,000 metric tons of cathode materials per year. This announcement… Read more »
SF Motors teases two new EVs, plans to begin production this year
After two years in stealth mode, Santa Clara-based SF Motors recently announced details of two upcoming EVs, the SF5 and the SF7. The SF5 will be available for pre-order by the end of 2018 and is scheduled to hit the road in 2019. The company plans to begin vehicle production this year at its facilities… Read more »