Battery

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Project tests electric truck for work in the Arctic

Operating EVs in extreme temperatures is a demanding exercise, as lithium-ion batteries generally work best between 15 and 35 C, so a four-week trial conducted throughout February 2021 above the Arctic Circle in Sweden was a severe test of a truck and its charging infrastructure (writes Peter Donaldson). In the test, the battery-powered truck carried loads of 14 t of iron ore sludge over a 280 km round trip in temperatures down to -32 C, says Adam Holmer of power-as-a-service provider Vattenfall. The trial was a cooperative effort between Vattenfall, Volvo Trucks and dealer Wist Last och Buss, charger manufacturer ABB and mining company Kaunis Iron.

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Honda to start battery-sharing service for electric rickshaws

Honda has announced plans to begin a battery-sharing service for electric rickshaws in India in the first half of 2022, using the Honda Mobile Power Pack e: (MPP e:), its new portable and swappable battery. There are more than 8 million auto rickshaws in India, and they are an essential means of daily transportation for people. In urban areas, they are powered mainly by compressed natural gas and have been a key challenge for electrification.

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Webasto batteries power innovative e-shuttle

French trucking company Lohr Industries will be launching a fully electric and modular e-shuttle system called the Cristal in four French cities before the end of 2021. The vehicles will be powered by batteries from Webasto, one of the world’s largest automotive suppliers. Some German cities have also signalled their interest.

Grid

Device reads LV and HV in one go

A 45 V high-withstand voltage battery monitoring device for automotive designs has implemented a supply voltage-divided output for the first time (writes Nick Flaherty). Dividing battery monitoring between high- and low-voltage sources increases the safety of e-mobility designs, as it allows 12 V batteries to be monitored by the same device that monitors the low […]

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Silver Power Systems and partners develop ‘world’s most advanced’ battery digital twin

An established concept in other areas of industry, a digital twin is a high-fidelity software model of a real system to which it is linked in as close to real time as possible. With that goal in mind, EV battery analytics specialist Silver Power

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Actia Group sets up Power division

Vehicle electronics supplier Actia has announced it has set up a Power division to consolidate the various activities of the wider Actia Group relating to the design and manufacture of onboard batteries, power electronics and electrification systems for electric and hydrogen hybrid mobility. It says its experience in vehicle electronics and power management means the […]

Grid

Matrix aimed at seal and EMI issues

The Electrically and Thermally Conductive and Electromagnetic Interference Shielding Materials (ETEMI) project aims to enhance conventional elastomers, liquid silicon rubber and thermoplastics to address sealing and EMI issues at the same time in EVs. This is driving the development of a new class of electrically conductive sealing materials.

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Validating BMS performance

Battery management systems are becoming increasingly safety-critical, as they are responsible for balancing battery cells operating at several hundred volts and maintaining temperatures within narrow working ranges to prevent thermal runaway (writes Peter Donaldson). Gauging the performance of a BMS during r&d, validation, verification and production is therefore of vital and growing importance. Bloomy Controls’ new Flex BMS Validation System is focused on the validation part, particularly in situations where the developer needs to test more than one BMS design.

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NeoGraf Solutions adds advanced graphene targets for energy storage markets

NeoGraf Solutions has extended its range of graphite materials with the launch of Graf-X graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) and graphene precursors (GPs) for a range of energy storage applications.

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StoreDot announces eXtreme approach to charging

StoreDot is developing new a lithium-ion battery technology it calls eXtreme Fast Charging (XFC) that will enable an EV to charge in 5-10 minutes (writes Peter Donaldson). At the heart of it is a silicon-dominated anode that can accept lithium ions much faster than a graphite anode (thanks to silicon’s lower resistance) but controls