Welcome to this week’s battery roundup. The most important news surrounding battery technology and production from Europe and beyond.
VW and QuantumScape Consider Producing Solid-State Batteries in Salzgitter, Germany
Volkswagen Group America and QuantumScape have just signed an agreement to select the location for their solid-state battery pilot plant by the end of the year. VW had previously invested $300 million in the San José based Startup and plans on using batteries with a solid electrolyte by 2025.
At the moment, the companies are considering Salzgitter in Lower Saxony, also the location for VW’s future battery plant, as a possible location for QS-1. The plant is to be scaled up from 1 GWh to 20GWh. QuantumScape’s pre-pilot plant in San José, QS-0, is planned for 2023.
Elon Musk Visits Giga Berlin
Elon Musk just visited the construction site in Grünheide. He expects production to start in 2021. More preliminary permits have been issued to Tesla this week. However, the main approval process for the site is still ongoing, as the battery factory was recently added to the building application. Since then, nothing further was disclosed about the battery plant.
In Texas, Model Y cars will also feature the new 4680 battery cells from the beginning. Construction of the plant started later than in Brandenburg but might beat Giga 4 to the production of cars with the new type of cells. Giga Texas can provide insight into future production in Brandenburg.
German Parliament Approves New Fast Charging Law
The German Bundestag just approved a draft bill on charging infrastructure to provides a fast-charging option every 15-30 km along long-distance roads. So far, charging networks are not very well developed in many European countries, including Germany.
“The German government’s goal is to support the nationwide, demand-driven development of publicly accessible infrastructure for fast charging of battery-only electric vehicles by providing financial resources.”
Extract from SchnellLG
The subsidies amount to € 2 billion. The aim of the law is to ensure a fair distribution of charging points between urban and rural areas. A reliable infrastructure is essential for the acceptance of electric cars.
Battery Analytics Startup Raises €21 Million in Series B Round
Munich-based Startup TWAICE has just raised €21 million ($26 million) from several investors, including Energize Ventures. The company was founded in 2018 and offers AI-based predictive analytics software to determine battery health and performance and to make battery systems more transparent. TWAICE customers include Audi, Daimler, and Hero Motors. With the funds, the company plans on expanding to the US.
This is not a complete list of news from this week but the press releases and articles I found the most interesting. Let me know if I missed anything important.
You can also follow me on Twitter (@BatteryBayEU), where I post some of the news before they end up in my weekly roundup. I’m looking forward to learning about your involvement or interest in the industry and chatting about everything batteries.
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