Battery Passport prototype launched by Global Battery Alliance

Battery Passport prototype launched by Global Battery Alliance

The Global Battery Alliance (GBA), an international multi-stakeholder group aiming to establish a sustainable global battery value chain by 2030, has launched its first proof of concept for a battery passport. The prototype, launched at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos earlier this month, demonstrates how traceable information on a battery’s route from mineral extraction to end-use will be disclosed to provide comparable, standardised and auditable processes. The data used in the proof-of-concept example came from Audi and Tesla as well as respective supply chain partners.

 

 

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Image credit: Adobe Stock

GM and LG Chem JV Ultium Cells receives USD2.5 billion US Government Loan

GM and LG Chem JV Ultium Cells receives USD2.5 billion US Government Loan

The US Department of Energy has awarded General Motors (GM) and LG Chem a loan of USD2.5 billion to help finance the construction of three lithium-ion battery cell production facilities in Lordstown, Ohio, Spring Hill, Tennessee, and Lansing, Michigan. Production has already begun at the 40GWh Ohio facility, with the Tennessee plant expected to come online in late 2023 and finally Michigan from Q3 2024. Plans for the Tennessee plant have recently been expanded from 35GWh at full capacity to 50GWh – a production capacity increase of around 40%. Once fully operational, the three plants will have combined annual production capacity of over 130GWh, with further expansion opportunities available at the Ohio site.

The loan is the first from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Program (ATVM) to be awarded to a project exclusively focused on battery cell manufacturing. Ultium Cells will produce…

 

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Image credit: Ultium Cells

China renews tax exemption on EV purchases

China renews tax exemption on EV purchases

The Chinese government has extended the EV tax break policy to encourage further growth in the domestic EV market. Implemented in 2014, the policy was first extended in 2017 to 2020, then again to December 2022. The latest announcement has extended the policy for a third time with no specified end-date established on this occasion. The tax exemption covers EVs, plug-in hybrids, and fuel-cell vehicles, and removes the standard tax of around 10% of the vehicle price normally applied to other vehicle types.

China’s domestic EV market is now the largest in the world and is rapidly expanding. The first half of 2022 sales show an increase of…

 

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Image Credit: Adobe Stock

EU Parliament backs proposed amendments to EU CO2 emissions regulation for cars and vans

On 8th June 2022 the EU Parliament voted in favour of the draft law for a 100% cut in tailpipe CO2 emissions by 2035 for new passenger vehicles and vans. The proposal first brought forward in July 2021, sets out the requirement for OEMs to reduce their average fleet emissions by 15% in 2025 (current regulation), compared to 2021 levels, 55% by 2030 (previously 37.5%) and 100% by 2035.

Proposals for a stricter 2030 and intermediate target for the late 2020s were rejected by MEPs, however, attempts to weaken the law to 90% reduction by 2035 and a proposed loophole to allow e-fuels were rejected.

Initially met with much objection, there has been a shift in recent months, with EU lawmakers backing the proposal, and a group of 27 large companies including Ford and Volvo signing a petition in favour of the ban in May. Additionally, the German Government previously against the proposal announced in March they would support the proposal following the election of the new Government.

 

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What’s driving the electric vehicle market?

This article will explore the key push factors driving the development of the electric vehicle (EV) market, and electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The report will point to the wider implications of the expansion of this sector on charging and energy demand. In our view the starting point for all discussions around EV adoption, and the move towards a lower emission transport sector, begins with legislation. It then moves to OEM technology strategy, and finally to the consumer and the public acceptance of new technologies. Over the previous two decades legislators around the world have been developing ever more stringent standards for vehicle emissions placing increasing pressure on OEMs to adopt new technologies for their vehicles. The focus of these measures has been in two areas, ambient air quality, addressed initially by the European Commission (EC) through the Euro standards, and by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resource Board (CARB). These standards have subsequently been adopted and rolled out in most major economies under a variety of different names.The second area of focus has been on CO2 emissions and the longer term objective of addressing climate change, led largely by the EC.

This year has seen the phasing in of new European CO2 emissions targets. The new target sets an OEM passenger car fleet average target of 95 grams CO2per km, with a potential fine of €95 per gram ofCO2over the limit, multiplied by the OEM’s European vehicle sales in a given year. The target is fairly robust, especially when you consider OEM fleet average emissions in recent years. The first chart serves to illustrate this point, it shows CO2 fleet average emissions for a sample of major OEMs in 2017-2019, versus the 95 g/km target. As can be seen, even at this relatively late stage OEMs are no way near meeting targets with their existing model line-ups. In fact, fleet average emissions have been rising, owing to lower proportion of diesels sold, and larger vehicle sizes among model line ups. For OEMs with significant sales volumes in Europe these fines could run to multiple billions of Euros. This goes some way to explaining the rate of growth in sales of plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles (PHEV & BEVs) in the region both this year and in 2019.

oem average

This brings us to our second point, OEM technology strategy. As a result of these legislative measures OEMs are left with little option but to continue to introduce PHEVs & BEVs into their model line ups and make significant investments in electrification, as they are in fact doing (See chart). It is no surprise that the European market is a bright spot for the PHEV & BEV market so far in 2020. One thing to bear in mind, however, is the relatively large share of PHEV in the sales mix in Europe, 46% so far this year versus 24% in China. We expect that PHEVs will remain an important part of the model mix in the coming years.

oem electrification investments

The third point in all this is will consumers accept, and buy, the vehicles that OEMs offer. The key issues in the EV market in this regard to date have been the purchase price for vehicles, and a concern around range and the availability of charging infrastructure. Price, is being resolved by three trends in the sector. The first is around an ongoing improvement in battery technology and increasing energy density (this is also helping with the range issue), the second is that EVs are now being developed on their own platforms rather than being an extension of an existing internal combustion engine vehicle range. This results in better quality vehicles, and crucially allows the cost benefits of a much simpler powertrain, with far fewer components, to be exploited. The crucial part in all this, however, is scale. Battery cell costs have fallen dramatically in recent years due to the huge expansion in production, and the same process is just beginning at the vehicle level.

The issues around range and charging are also in the process of being resolved. Sales weighted average BEV & PHEV ranges have doubled since 2012, from roughly 180km to nearly 400km, as average battery pack sizes have also doubled, from under 20 kWh to nearly 40kWh, as a result of better and cheaper battery technology. As it stands, however, charging infrastructure has failed to keep pace with the increase in the EV sales, particularly in Europe (See chart). This has not been a significance hindrance to the market yet, as much charging takes place at home, however as the market grows this will need to be addressed. This will require huge investments at the charging point level, we calculate in the region of USD500 billion globally over the next decade, but also at the grid level for energy generation, storage and transmission. The energy transition is happening, but it will require huge financial commitment from multiple stakeholders along the entire supply chain, but as with all challenges, this also presents huge opportunities.

EV per public charging point

Rho Motion is a research and consultancy house based in London. We provide market intelligence and research for EV & Battery markets, EV Charging Infrastructure, and Electronic Stationary Storage for grid applications. More information can be found on our website at www.rhomotion.com.