A project to reduce the size weight and cost of electric and hybrid vehicle batteries has been awarded research funding from the EU.
Axeon, one of Europe’s biggest suppliers of lithium ion battery systems for autos is one of the companies which will be working on the consortium programme called SmartBatt.
The consortium is led by AIT Mobility (the Austrian Institute for Technology’s Mobility Division) and the eight other partners joining Axeon; : AIT LKR (Light Metal Competence Centre), the Fraunhofer Institute Light Metals Division & Joining Technology Division, Impact Design, Ricardo UK Ltd, SP Technical Consulting, Technical University Graz and Volkswagen.
The programme is part of the seventh framework agreement to develop the ‘Smart and Safe Integration of Batteries in Electric Vehicles’ and will aim to improve battery integration into vehicle structures by significantly reducing battery weight, volume and cost without changing the actual cells.
The programme targets to reduce battery weight by 10 to 15 per cent, reduce battery pack volume by 20-30 per cent and reduce battery pack cost by 5 to 10 per cent.
Lawrence Berns, Axeon CEO, said: “Axeon is proud to be working with this consortium of multinational, well-established and highly-respected organisations on improving the integration of batteries in hybrid and electric vehicles. Our involvement in SmartBatt underlines our proven capability, experience and importantly our success in developing and integrating advanced automotive battery systems.“
The SmartBatt project is scheduled to last 24 months up until the end of 2012.
