chemistries

The US state of Missouri is backing proposals that could see lead batteries used to provide power at electric vehicle charging stations.

Missouri’s Division of Energy has awarded a competitive grant to support a Consortium for Battery Innovation (CBI) feasibility study that will investigate advanced lead battery energy storage deployed alongside EV charging points at state gas (petrol) stations.

Discarded toys containing lithium-ion batteries are believed to have started a blaze at a recycling company in Germany that led to an estimated €600,000 (US$682,000) worth of damage.

Willi Hörger, the owner of the recycling company Hörger in Bächingen, Bavaria, told regional broadcaster BR24 that batteries wrongly discarded along with the toys appeared to have started the blaze, which destroyed a warehouse and at one point was being tackled by around 80 firefighters.

Proposed tariffs on Chinese lithium-ion batteries and related equipment would have “an immediate and adverse effect on grid energy storage deployments”, US leaders have been warned.

President Donald Trump has threatened to slap tariffs on a further $300 billion worth of Chinese exports to the US if Chinese president Xi Jinping does not meet him at the G20 summit of world leaders in Japan later this month.

German chemicals group BASF is expanding its presence in the energy sector, after agreeing to sell lithium-ion and sodium sulfur (NaS) batteries developed by Japan’s NGK Insulators.

BASF New Business (BNB)— a subsidiary of the chemicals group— said on 11 June it had signed a non-exclusive rights agreement to sell NaS batteries through BASF’s international network.

Toyota is teaming up with several Asian battery manufacturers to ensure it has the supplies it needs to ramp up production of electric vehicles, the Japanese car company has confirmed.

Chinese battery and auto makers CATL and BYD are now lined up to work with Toyota—in addition to Japan’s GS Yuasa and Toshiba, Toyota bosses have confirmed.