Lithium-ion battery development and production is rapidly escalating worldwide, yet there’s no standard when it comes to battery designs, materials, and chemistries. And that affects the ability to recycle Li-ion batteries – a vital final stage of their life cycle. But this may be about to change in the US.
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Tesla and Panasonic have undoubtedly the biggest and most widely publicized li-ion battery production project in the Gigafactory in Nevada, but it’s far from the only project aiming to increase global supply of this important component for many industries, including the EV industry.
As we often discussed, Tesla is already producing battery packs at the Gigafactory, but that’s only the beginning. In October 2015, the company moved the Tesla Energy production line from its Fremont factory to the ‘Gigafactory 1‘ project in Nevada. Tesla has since been ramping up for volume production to start in early 2016.
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Toyota revealed details on some of the new technologies it will introduce in its fourth generation Prius. Most notably, the Japan-based automaker will offer two choices of battery packs with higher energy density for the 2016 Prius: lithium-ion or nickel-metal hybrid.
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The electronics and auto parts giant Bosch announced the acquisition of Seeo Inc, a California-based startup with exclusive licensing rights to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s portfolio of patents for lithium polymer battery cells.
Bosch has a long-standing interest in electric vehicles from a strategic supply partnership with Tesla Motors to their own series of charging stations, but this acquisition could represent a major step for the company’s effort in the field.
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Earlier this year, Polaris bought the electric motorcycle maker Brammo. A few weeks ago, we wrote about Vicotry, which is a Polaris brand, unveiling the Empulse TT. As we explained, the TT is pretty much just a rebranding of Brammo’s own Empulse R, but rebranding aside, last week, Polaris unveiled the first all-new electric vehicle resulting from the acquisition of Brammo : the RANGER EV Li-Ion Polaris Pursuit Camo.
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