Metals Tech

South Koreaʼs SK Innovation began construction last Thursday of a HUF 97.5 billion plant to make lithium batteries for electric vehicles in Komárom (NW Hungary).  Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said the government has awarded a non-repayable grant of HUF 8.17 bln for the project.

The investment will create 410 jobs in the first phase, Szijjártó was cited as saying by official government website kormany.hu, noting that the automotive industry constitutes the “backbone” of the Hungarian economy, employing 176,000 people and responsible for almost one third of the country’s industrial production.

Kormany.hu noted that SK Innovation is South Korea’s third largest company. With its settlement in the industrial park in Komárom, there are now three major battery manufacturing plants in Hungary. Additionally, Chinaʼs BYD makes electric buses in the city’s industrial park, while nearby Audi has begun production of electric motors for cars.

Yoon Ye-seon, chief of SK Innovationʼs battery division, said mass production at the 430,000 square-meter plant would begin in 2020, when the annual capacity of batteries manufactured will be around 7.5 GWh, able to serve 250,000 cars. Production could be ramped up later based on demand from customers, he added.

The kormany.hu report noted that with the appearance of SK Innovation, three South Korean companies will be making batteries for electric cars in Central and Eastern Europe. LG Chem will open a plant in Poland in 2018, while Samsung SDI recently opened its plant in Göd, north of Budapest, in an investment worth HUF 100 billion, employing 600 people.

Reports have come out that the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance is aiming to take the lead in new solid-state battery technology.

The Alliance, formed in 1999 between the French and Japanese car giants, is targeting 2025 to use the next generation of batteries within its automobile range.

Solid-state batteries are smaller, cheaper and can work at a higher capacity than alternatives, such as lithium-ion, currently widely used in the industry.

Gilles Normand, Renault’s head of electric vehicles, told the Financial Times, that “the technology promises huge advantages over current lithium ion batteries in cost, density and thermal stability…There are many challenges, but we are making very good progress with an aim of getting it to market before 2030, and by 2025 if possible”.

The conglomerate faces competition from both Toyota and BMW, which also expects to release solid-state batteries within its cars during the 2020s.

The potential for using solid-state batteries is also being pushed on the state level. The UK Government has recently set up The Faraday Institution to help make advancements in battery technology, and one of its main aims is to research solid-state batteries.

Sales of electric vehicles, while still small, have skyrocketed in recent years due to plummeting costs and the need to meet emissions targets. National government have also made public pledges to make the transition to cleaner forms of transport. France and the UK both plan to end sales of petrol and diesel cars by 2040; Germany is also seeking to have one million active electric cars by 2020.

Advancements in the technology have led energy experts to make predictions that by 2040 sales of electric vehicles could account for one third of the world’s auto fleet, a total of 530 million vehicles.

Automotive technology company Continental and Chinese automotive supplier and battery manufacturer Sichuan Chengfei Integration Technology (CITC) will establish a joint venture to develop and produce 48V battery systems for the automotive industry.

Continental will hold a 60% stake in the JV, which will operate globally and support customers in Europe and North America, as well as China and other Asian markets, from its headquarters in Changzhou, China. Operations are to begin in mid-2018.

The aim is to establish the JV as one of the global market’s leading 48V battery-system manufacturers.

CITC’s China Aviation Lithium Battery Co. (CALB) subsidiary has extensive expertise in developing and producing lithium-ion battery cells, Continental says in a news release. The JV will allow Continental to offer its 48V mild-hybrid system from a single source.

The JV will develop and produce a battery platform for all conventional 48V topologies (P0, P2, Px) up to 25 kW. CALB will provide the battery cells, while Continental will contribute the battery-management system including the basic software. The JV will integrate the components in the battery systems, carry out customer-specific development work and integrate the systems in vehicles.

The JV also will assist automakers purchasing only individual components of the 48V system, such as the battery cells or the battery-management system.

Continental claims its mild-hybrid technology reduces average fuel consumption and emissions in real driving situations up to 21% in gasoline engines and up to 9% in diesels, as well as cutting nitrogen-oxide emissions. The supplier anticipates that as early as 2025, about 14% of all new vehicles worldwide will feature this mild-hybrid system.

“Entering the 48V battery-systems business is a strategically important step for Continental and one that will further strengthen our position as a system provider on the fast-growing mild-hybrid market,” Continental CEO Elmar Degenhart says. “In CITC, we have found a partner whose subsidiary CALB provides the ideal conditions for this joint venture. CITC allows us access to the Chinese market, which is significant. It also has the potential to impose itself on the international competition and to become a global provider in the production of battery cells.”

Continental says its 48V system offers functions previously available only in more-costly high-voltage hybrid systems. These include coasting – switching off the combustion engine while the vehicle is in motion – a very fast engine start and effective recuperation. The Continental system first entered production in 2017 in Renault and Audi models. Further market launches for diesel and gasoline engines are planned in China, Europe, and North America.

ECONET Wireless Zimbabwe says it has begun the process to invest over $250 million into a solar power systems project amid indications the corporate has placed orders for nearly 20MW.

The investment, Econet said, could eventually dwarf its investment in telecoms of almost $2 billion over the last 10 years.

Econet, Zimbabwe’s largest mobile telecoms company, said the investment will be done through its subsidiary, Distributed Power Africa (DPA), and will provide solar energy solutions for industrial, commercial and home use.

Econet said the multi-million dollar investment is aimed at creating over 5 000 new jobs in Zimbabwe over the next two years. Econet said it had already placed an order to replace most of its conventional power systems with solar power and lithium batteries. Zimbabwe is touted to be headed for a game changing era through exploitation of lithium, which is also used in the manufacture of electric vehicle batteries, whose global demand is growing.

The country, the world’s fifth largest producer, has discovered several lithium deposits around the country, but only one is now producing. Projects such as DPA’s will drive lithium demand.

Several of the systems, which DPA intends to install for customers, have reportedly already arrived in the country with Econet’s headquarters in Harare already moving to solar power and off grid.

Other leading Zimbabwean companies have also placed orders for the system which completely eliminates the need for getting power from the national grid except in emergency.

It also replaces the need for diesel powered generators, which require foreign exchange for diesel imports and also harm the environment.

“Our order book from corporates in Zimbabwe is already over 20 MW and growing daily,” said Norman Moyo who heads the technology portfolio within Econet Wireless Zimbabwe.

The concept of distributed power, from which the company (DPA) derives its name, works on a reverse model to that used in traditional power utility models such as State utility, Zesa.

Instead of having a central power station, controlled from a central control centre, in a distributed power system, each customer has a “mini (power) generating” plant on their premises.

This is then controlled from a central control point managed by DPA, which has over 100 engineers and technicians in Zimbabwe.

DPA, Econet Wireless said, works with financial partners, including local banks to finance the solution for each customer.

Once approved the customer pays for the system using a leasing model, whereby they pay a flat monthly fee for 15 years.

“This is off balance sheet financing, like leasing a car or industrial machinery,” said Mr Moyo in a statement on Friday.

Although the initial focus is industrial and commercial customers, the company hopes to start adding homes in the next 12 months.

“We are about to build for 100 homes just to demonstrate our capability but we are not yet ready for that sector,” Mr Moyo said.

One of the key benefits of the DPA model is its capacity to create jobs for young people. This is a high tech business, but it requires skilled installers to roll out each system installation.

There will be thousands of jobs created around the country for young people in particular. “Already we are ramping up rapidly, and we expect to add 5000 jobs when we are at full capacity.”

Meanwhile, Econet founder Strive Masiyiwa says Zimbabwe has the potential to be a global manufacturing centre for the type of Lithium batteries required by companies like DPA Africa.

“We are already using Lithium battery systems in DPA and we are partnered with some of the key players in that industry.

“Given our ambitions in this space for our Africa wide roll-out, we would be keen to see local manufacturing in Africa itself.

“It would make a lot of sense for Zimbabwe to position itself as a manufacturer of the finished products rather than as a miner of raw materials. We are neither miners nor manufacturers.

“It’s really up to government if they want to get investment in manufacturing to come up with the policies that would make it attractive to invest in large scale manufacturing,” he said.

There’s an important caveat with electric cars. Although electric vehicles have zero tailpipe emissions, they draw their power from a wide variety of energy sources. Bloomberg reports, “Trading in your gasoline-guzzling car for an electric vehicle is a lot like shifting the emissions … [as] EVs run off electricity, and that electricity” can come from both clean and dirty energy sources.

Of course, if you live the 360-degree Tesla lifestyle — rooftop solar, Powerwall battery, and a Model 3 in your garage — you won’t have to rely on a dirty grid. To that end, “how green your EV is depends on where you’re plugging it in.” But, if you rely on the grid, “An electric car in Norway is probably the closest thing you’ll get to a true zero-emissions vehicle—because the European country draws almost all of its electricity from hydropower plants.”

Some countries are clearly better than others. For instance, “an electric car in China accounts for more than double the emissions than one in the UK … [but] that’s still better than the average internal combustion engine.” Regardless, as evidenced below, “Driving an electric car is still better for the world than chugging around in a gasoline-burning one.”

And it gets better — over time, electric cars continue to get cleaner as the grid increases its use of renewable energy sources. For some context, “running off electricity was 39 percent cleaner than using internal combustion engines in 2016… and that gap is expected to widen to 67 percent by 2040 as solar and wind power keep taking on a bigger and bigger share of the world’s power mix.”

That said, what about the United States today? Energy sources vary from state to state. It’s reported that “California gets virtually none of its power from coal and Texas relies on the rock for more than a quarter. Also, not all fossil-fuel plants are created equal. Some states are stricter about the emissions these generators can spew than others. That’s why the emissions factor for power generation in cities across the U.S. can vary so greatly.”

Perhaps this is why Elon Musk is playing the long game. While legacy automakers team up with Big Oil to improve the internal combustion engine, Tesla is expanding into solar and batteries. In other words, “Tesla wants to offer the whole fossil fuel-free frittata. Forget ‘well to wheels.’ Tesla’s talking generation to acceleration.” And it’s not just houses and cars — Musk’s looking at transforming the entire grid itself. And Tesla’s already started in locations (big and small) all over the world.

Renault has introduced a new electric car Renault Zoe R110, which will be sold as the model 2018. Its presentation took place at the Geneva motor show.

External changes from the Renault Zoe R110 is very low. They are minimal. Were slightly redesigned front bumper and grille. There is a new exterior color — Blueberry Purple, available in top-end configuration Purple Blueberry Pack. In this configuration, even in the cabin there are elements of purple color.

The salon also has undergone a “cosmetic” improvement. The dashboard has changed a bit its design. Infotainment system R-Link Evolution is compatible with Android Auto.

But the most important thing is that now Zoe R110 has a more powerful electric motor than before. Its power reaches 109 HP, 16 HP more than the previous year. To 100 km/h, this small electric car accelerates in 11.4 seconds. This is almost 2 seconds faster than the previous model. Maximum speed — 135 km/h.

Updated Renault Zoe R110 per charge in summer, passing 300 km, and in winter, 200 km of rechargeable lithium-ion battery from 0 to 80% takes 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Renault opens ordering for Renault Zoe R110 2018 next month. However, at first this novelty will be sold only in France.