Battery

New Products

Marelli launches wireless distributed battery management system

Global automotive supplier Marelli has expanded its range of battery management technologies with a new wireless distributed battery management system (wBMS). Being wireless, it eliminates the need to daisy-chain the comms and wiring between an EV’s batteries and the control unit. The company says it also reduces the amount of wiring in the harness by […]

New Products

Mahle launches e-bike drive system

Mahle has started deliveries of its new X20 traction motor for e-bikes. The company says that, with a system weight of less than 3.2 kg including battery and control unit, the X20 is the lightest e-bike drive on the market. The X20 drive system is tailored to the design of gravel bikes, road bikes and […]

New Products

Squad Mobility announces solar/battery urban EV

Squad Mobility has unveiled its Squad Solar City Car, a compact two-seater that charges itself on solar energy. It will be available in 2023, cost from €6250 (ex VAT) and can be pre-ordered now. Optimised for private as well as shared mobility use, it has been designed to bridge the gap between cars and two-wheelers. […]

New Products

Study shows promise for zero-emissions fire engines

Research by hydrogen fuel company ULEMCo has concluded that battery-electric fire tenders fitted with hydrogen fuel cells and carrying at least 8 kg of hydrogen fuel will give them the required flexibility, emergency response and water pumping requirements, especially for rural and semi-urban services. The research was carried out with Oxfordshire County Council and […]

Grid

Maritime pack protection system

KULR has developed a passive propagation resistant (PPR) system to protect maritime battery packs against the risk of fire (writes Nick Flaherty). The US Coast Guard is launching new safety requirements for passenger vessels, and the PPR developed by KULR provides additional battery safety options for the cargo ships, fishing trawlers and cruise liners. A […]

New Products

Henkel launches new fire protection solutions for safer EV batteries

Henkel has launched two new protective coating products – Loctite EA 9400 and Loctite FPC 5060 – that are designed to shield EV battery housings against heat and fire in case of a thermal runaway. Designed for automated mass production, they can both be applied by ‘spray’ or ‘flat stream’ nozzles, and both are compatible […]

Grid

Wireless BMS simplifies pack design

Visteon has launched a wireless BMS and added smart junction box technology to simplify battery pack designs (writes Nick Flaherty). The company has been involved in BMS development since the earliest days of EV production when it supported the 1998 Ford Ranger EV. The wireless BMS uses chips from Analog Devices to eliminate the traditional […]

PS

Electric trams and trolley buses

In the West we are still addicted to the car as the ultimate embodiment of personal mobility (writes Peter Donaldson). However, there is growing awareness of the total carbon footprint of transport, and even the most

Web exclusive

Breakthrough for lithium-sulphur batteries

A cell technology holding 900 Wh/kg – three times the energy density of state-of-the-art lithium-ion battery chemistries – that is safer and cheaper thanks to the use of abundant and easily accessible sulphur for the cathode in place of nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) is an exciting prospect (writes Peter Donaldson). Batteries that use sulphur […]

Grid

Lithium-air pack beats lithium-ion

Researchers in Japan have developed a lithium-air battery that has a far higher energy density than current lithium-ion batteries (writes Nick Flaherty). Lithium-air batteries have the potential to be the ultimate rechargeable packs, as they are lightweight and have high capacity, with theoretical energy densities of 3150 Wh/kg – several times that of the lithium-ion […]