Kreisel Electric, a little Austrian startup making some waves in the battery industry, announced that it started construction of a new battery factory to manufacture up to 800 MWh of high energy density li-ion battery packs aimed at the electric vehicle industry.
It’s not a Gigafactory with a 50 GWh planned output or with battery cell production, but it’s still a significant plant with 0.8 GWh planning to come online as soon as next year in Rainbach, Austria.
The startup made a name for itself by designing battery packs used to retrofit electric vehicles or gasoline cars with decent energy capacity.
Here are a few projects completed by Kreisel:
Amongst these individually converted vehicles are a Porsche Panamera with a total electric (operating) range of 450 kilometres (resp. 280 miles) without speed reduction (up to 300 km/ h resp. 186 mph), a Skoda Yeti and a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter. Besides that Kreisel cooperates with manufacturers, fleet operators, as well as with cab and transport companies. The result is either the production of a custom-made small-scale series with up to 500 vehicles or Kreisel supports the company in establishing and operating a licenced production of its battery technology.
Another highlight is the implementation of a Kreisel battery in the e-Golf by VW: the high- voltage battery is mounted between the axles and currently features a capacity of 24.2 kilowatt hours at a weight of 330 kilograms (approx. 730 pounds). The installation of the Kreisel battery pack enables a higher capacity of 55.7 kilowatt hours, while the required installation space and the weight remain identical. Thus the e-cars driving range in accordance with the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) improves from 190 to over 430 kilometres (resp. from 120 to 267 miles).
Kreisel’s technology is on the battery pack side and not the cells, which the company imports from a supplier. The company focuses on developing light weight, compact and efficient all-in battery solutions with their own BMS and cooling system.
The company plans for the new factory to cover 6,276 square meters (resp. 67,554 square feet). The star-shaped plant will consist of three equally sized parts with one for battery production, another for technical development of prototypes and small batch productions, and the last section of the building will host the software and engineering development and the offices.
The company shared a few renderings of the facility and pictures of the ground breaking ceremony (via Kreisel):
via Greencarcongress
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