Electric Vehicles

US-based Acculon Energy has announced series production of its sodium-ion battery modules and packs for mobility and stationary energy storage applications. Scaled production of 2 GWh is scheduled to start in mid-2024.

China-based TAILG has revealed its new sodium-ion battery technology. The company’s luxury e-bikes will be the first to feature its sodium-ion batteries, and they will initially be available in China.

The US Department of Energy’s (DoE) Argonne National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory will carry out demonstration projects to validate long-duration energy storage tech developed by German manufacturer CMBlu Energy. The collaborative project is designed to improve microgrids in cold climates and make fast charging of electric vehicles more affordable in underserved communities.

Researchers from Australia have created a model to optimize the interaction between vehicle-to-home (V2H) systems and residential PV connected to battery storage. They claim V2H can help reduce the cost of energy by 16.7% for workplace charging and 25% for public charging.

Two workers have died in separate accidents at Northvolt’s battery gigafactory in Sweden in recent weeks, with a technician succumbing to burns after an explosion on a production line and a construction worker killed by a falling fork stand. pv magazine has learned that the equipment that caught fire was not a part of the battery manufacturing process.

KPIT, an India-based automotive software and engineering solutions supplier, has unveiled its proprietary sodium-ion battery technology, and is now on the lookout for manufacturing partners. Ravi Pandit, chairman of KPIT, tells pv magazine, that that the company has developed multiple variants with energy density ranging from 100 Wh/kg to 170 Wh/kg, and potentially reaching 220 Wh/kg.

Japan’s Toshiba says its new PV output photocoupler for solid-state relay could be used for battery management systems, onboard chargers, and inverters.

For the seventh year in the row, China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. (CATL) looks set to claim the title of the world’s biggest battery maker. There are a number of reasons why it continues to maintain its lead in the electric vehicle (EV) and battery energy storage system (BESS) markets..

Israel’s Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure says it is currently developing a multi-year program for communities attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7. It aims to deploy 5 GW of energy in the destroyed areas, once residents return.

Andries Wantenaar, a solar analyst at Rethink Energy, explains why he sees a bright future for perovskite PV cells, with technological advancements and major R&D investment paving the way for revolutionary change.