EvoBus chooses lithium-ion battery systems from Akasol for new electric bus (Press Release)
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With nearly 30 years of German engineering, testing and manufacturing experience, Akasol delivers safe battery systems for the commercial transport sector. One of the clients is the leading European bus manufacturer EvoBus, part of Daimler.
Darmstadt, 9. April 2018
Daimler subsidiary EvoBus chooses lithium-ion battery sys-tems from Akasol for new electric bus
- Akasol's lithium-ion battery systems combine high performance charging and discharging, high energy density and a long lifetim - As an automotive supplier to Daimler, Akasol has met high industry standards of development, testing and validation since 2015 - With nearly 30 years of German engineering, testing and manufacturing experience, Akasol delivers safe battery systems for the commercial transport sector
Akasol, based in Darmstadt (Germany), is now manufacturing lithium-ion bat-tery systems for Daimler subsidiary EvoBus. The leading European bus man-ufacturer plans to launch its new electric bus Citaro at the IAA Commercial Vehicles in September. These buses will be fitted with up to ten of Akasol's AKASYSTEM OEM battery packs (max. 243 kilowatt hours). The innovative technology combines high demands on performance charging and discharg-ing, energy density and lifespan.
Series manufacturing of the Citaro bus will start this year. "We're working on this together with Akasol's experts. Based on the specifications we have developed to-gether, they manufacture battery systems for us with cells from Samsung," con-firms Gustav Tuschen, Head of Product Engineering Daimler Buses and a member of the EvoBus management team. "The batteries are being tempered at about 25°C. With this we expect maximum charging capacity, performance and lifetime."
Akasol laid the foundation for delivering high performance battery systems to Eu-rope's leading bus manufacturers by opening a serial production plant for commer-cial vehicle battery systems in Langen (Hessen, Germany) in autumn 2017. The facility has a yearly capacity of up to 300 megawatt hours. Akasol believes, that this is Europe's largest production plant for commercial vehicle lithium-ion battery systems.
Development, testing and validation of the AKASYSTEM OEM battery systems for EvoBus have run since 2015. "It was a great challenge for our company to meet Daimler's high requirements on one of the most important components of electric power trains. I say this not just with regard to developing the product, but also con-sidering the needs of serial production," comments Sven Schulz, Managing Direc-tor of Akasol GmbH.
Akasol's battery systems in the electric Citaro are able to charge rapidly, meet the demands on operating range and also supply additional units such as air condition-ing and electrical systems. Between six and ten of Akasol's safe and powerful bat-tery packs are mounted in the vehicles, partly on the roof, but also in the rear, where they take up the space that was once intended for the diesel engine.
"The key factor for meeting our client's demands on lifetime is our efficient water-cooling. Tempering has been shown to work efficiently and reliably both in winter tests in the north of Sweden where it was incredibly cold as well as on summer drives in the dry desert heat in southern Spain," reports Sven Schulz. The Citaro bus with electric drive will have an operating range of 150 kilometres (SORT2 cycles, medi-um traffic). Throughout the coming years operating range shall be continually im-proved upon.
According to a study by leading consultancy PwC*, there are currently 200 electric buses, but more than 20,000 diesel buses operating in public transport in Germany. This year the number of electric vehicles could double. Cities such as Hamburg** and others have announced that by 2020 they will only deploy new, emission-free vehicles such as Citaro E-CELL.
Akasol has developed and sold a range of battery systems for electric and hybrid buses for years. Aside from EvoBus another client of serially produced battery systems is a large European bus manufacturer from Sweden. VDL Bus & Coach (Netherlands) and Alexander Dennis are project-based clients. Electric buses equipped with Akasol's bat-tery technology operate successfully in London, Berlin, Braunschweig and Cologne amongst other places.
Images and Footage you'll find here: http://bit.ly/Akasol_Press_Kit
Sources:
* Study PwC: Article of Automobil-Industrie
** Hamburg: Link to the press release
About Akasol
Akasol is a leading European manufacturer of lithium-ion battery systems that are market ready to deliver safe, reliable and compliant power at scale for global electric transport. With nearly 30 years of German engineering, testing and manufacturing experience, Akasol delivers safe battery systems for major players in the commercial transport sector. Current clients include Daimler EvoBus, VDL Bus & Coach, Alexander Dennis, Alstom, Bombardier and Bucher Municipal. Those clients demand stringent benchmarking for safety across Akasol's OEM-certified products, as well as extensive product testing and supply chain traceability.
In 2017 Akasol has opened a new battery systems facility in Langen with an annual capacity of 300 MWh. To Akasol's knowledge, this is Europe's largest production plant for commercial vehicle lithium-ion battery systems, currently capable of producing high-performance battery systems for up to 1,500 fully electric buses or up to 6,000 commercial vehicles per year, depending on battery size. The facility is planned to be expanded to 600 MWh by 2020.
The company, based in Darmstadt (Hessen) and led by Sven Schulz and Felix von Borck, has powered more than 1,000 electrified vehicles, with end-customers already travelling millions of kilometres safely and reliably. Co-founders are Dr Björn Eberleh and Stephen Raiser. For further information, visit the company's website: www.akasol.com
Weitere Informationen: AKASOL GmbH, Katja Steinhauser Landwehrstraße 55, D-64293 Darmstadt Tel.: +49 6151 80 05 00-140 katja.steinhauser@akasol.com www.akasol.com Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit: Life Size Media, Martin Jendrischik Akazienstraße 3A, D-10823 Berlin Tel.: +49 151 23 91 57 80 martin@lifesizemedia.de www.lifesizemedia.de
