Global vehicle OEM brands Daimler and China’s state-owned BAIC Group have entered into a development partnership to establish Beijing’s first second-life energy storage system facility.
The firms plan to use retired electric car batteries from BAIC’s subsidiary Beijing Electric Vehicle (BJEV).
German firms Triathlon Batteries and forklift OEM Jungheinrich have acquired a 240,000m2 site to build one of Europe’s biggest lithium-ion battery pack assembly plants for the motive application market.
The companies’ JT Energy Systems joint venture, formed earlier this year, will initially build a 42,000m2 production plant on the former solar equipment-manufacturing site in Freiberg, in the eastern-German state of Saxony.
It is ‘business as usual’ for redT following the announcement on 25 July it had agreed to a proposed merger with fellow vanadium redox flow battery company Avalon Battery Corporation.
The UK and US (respectively) companies have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding for the merger. If approved by shareholders the deal will constitute a reverse takeover* under London Stock Exchange rules.
New York State has announced a $55 million investment plan to deploy battery energy storage systems on Long Island, including commercial and residential projects.
Governor Andrew Cuomo (pictured) said the programme would be launched with an initial rollout of nearly $15m in incentives from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has called for “giga-scale battery production” to be launched in the UK, as the company revealed plans to manufacture a range of new electric vehicles in England.
JLR said the plans for its Castle Bromwich plant near Birmingham marked “the next significant step in delivering on the company’s commitment to offer customers electrified options for all new Jaguar and Land Rover models from 2020”.
Inzi Controls, a South Korean automotive company, is to build an electric vehicles battery plant in Hungary.
The company will build the plant in the city of Komárom, backed by a HUF1.6 billion (US$5.6 million) grant from Hungary’s government, foreign affairs and trade minister Peter Szijjarto (pictured) confirmed.
Swiss battery metals investor Blackstone Resources said it is forming an international research team that will develop and test “new solid-state battery technologies”.
Blackstone said the team, including “strategic partners” from Germany, Belgium, Poland, Austria, the UK and Switzerland, will form part of its €200 million batteries investment project— which includes plans to build a research centre in the German city of Erfurt.
The Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) is to invest CNY10 billion (US$1.5bn) in building a new lithium battery plant in the country.
State-owned AVIC said the plant in Xiamen, in China’s southeastern Fujian Province, will have an eventual annual production capacity of 20GWh across a 570 square metre site.
Germany could help finance three separate corporate alliances for the domestic production of battery cells for Europe’s growing electric vehicle market, according to the country’s economy minister.
Peter Altmaier (pictured) told Reuters: “We’ve now reached a point where we can say that there is likely to be not only one battery cell consortium, but probably three.”
US battery manufacturer Exide Technologies has expansion in its sights after completing “comprehensive” new financing and recapitalisation of the business.
As part of the recapitalisation, Exide said it had issued US$150 million of new international notes generating net proceeds of around $125m.
