batteries

Envision to build China battery plant on back of Nissan deal

Envision CEO and founder Lei Zhang. Photo: Envision

Shanghai-based energy group Envision has unveiled plans to build an electric vehicle battery plant in China and upgrade production facilities it has acquired following its takeover of Nissan’s international lithium-ion business.

Envision CEO Zhang Lei (pictured) told the China Daily his company plans to build the plant in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, in a bid to drive down the cost of lithium batteries driving accelerating growth in China’s EV market.

Envision Group

nissan

batteries

Zhang Lei

AESC

Mercedes’ billion euro pledge on batteries

Mercedes-Benz has announced investments of more than €1 billion (US$1.1bn) in “global battery production” in concert with the launch of its first fully-electric vehicle— the ‘EQC’.

The auto firm’s chief Dieter Zetsche gave the batteries pledge as the company said it would also invest more than €10bn in the expansion of its EQ model portfolio.

LG Chem hails “massive” deal with China’s Ganfeng for batteries

South Korean battery firm LG Chem has agreed a deal to acquire a “massive volume” of a key material from China's largest lithium compounds producer, to spur production of batteries for electric vehicles.

LG Chem said it had signed a contract with Ganfeng Lithium for the supply of a total 48,000 tons of lithium hydroxide, “enough to manufacture about one million batteries”.

Battery storage rises on German energy market ‘barometer’

Battery storage systems in Germany will scale new heights over the next decade as renewable energy developers become increasingly reliant on the technology, says a new study.

Analysis by the Mannheim-based Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) shows the vast majority of energy market experts in Germany believe capacity requirements of energy storage systems “will continue to rise”.

Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW)

Nissan selling batteries unit to China’s Envision

Shanghai-based energy group Envision has agreed a deal to become the majority owner of Nissan’s international lithium-ion batteries business.

The definitive agreement with Envision comes just two months after Nissan’s proposed sale of the business to Chinese private equity firm GSR Capital fell through.

Envision

nissan

batteries

Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC)

GSR Capital

NEC

Lei Zhang

German firms warn US in new Trump trade tirade

German auto firms have indicated they could pull the plug on new investments in battery manufacturing and related facilities in the US if they are forced to pay increased tariffs under a “national security” review.

The warning came after the Trump administration launched an investigation that could pave they way for new tariffs to be slapped on automotive products from Europe, Japan and South Korea.

Bernhard Mattes

German Association of the Automotive Industry

daimler

bmw

batteries

Battery sector ‘needs outside help’

Batteries are a defining component of electrified vehicles and will need to halve in cost and double in energy density in the next two decades without using unsustainable materials or manufacturing processes, says Dave Greenwood— professor of advanced propulsion of the Warwick Manufacturing Group.

And in the long term, it can’t be done without outside industry input, the academic said.

Warwick Manufacturing Group

Prof Dave Greenwood

Automotive Council of the UK

electrified vehicles

batteries

LG Chem powers battery supply with Nemaska Lithium deal

South Korean battery firm LG Chem has signed an initial five-year deal for the supply of battery-grade lithium hydroxide from Canada’s Nemaska Lithium.

LG Chem will receive 7,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide annually from October 2020, on a take-or-pay basis, to help fuel battery production.

Battery tech investors ‘face betting on wrong horse’, says report

Battery makers will need to work as part of “innovative ecosystems” to successfully launch new technologies onto the market, according to a new report.

The report by consulting firm Arthur D Little said “no single company will be able to come out on top without the support of an intricate and dynamic innovation ecosystem made up of partners, start-ups and institutes”.

solid-state batteries

Doosan follows Korean battery firms to Hungary with copper foil plant

The Doosan Corporation has become the latest Korean player beating a path to Hungary to compete for a slice of Europe’s electric vehicle battery components business.

The company is to start building a battery-grade copper foil manufacturing plant in Tatabánya, northwestern Hungary this year— and begin producing 50,000 tons of the material annually from mid-2019.