EC backs battery switch project

A consortium coordinated by Better Place and including Renault SA, Continental, Ernst & Young, TÜV Rheinland, KEMA and five leading European institutions has announced formal approval from the European Commission for an R&D programme to make it easier for European automobile and battery manufacturers to build electric cars with switchable batteries.
February 3, 2012 Read time: 2 mins

A consortium coordinated by 170 Better Place and including 2453 Renault SA, 260 Continental, Ernst & Young, 2236 TÜV Rheinland, 2239 KEMA and five leading European institutions has announced formal approval from the 1690 European Commission for an R&D programme to make it easier for European automobile and battery manufacturers to build electric cars with switchable batteries. This announcement is the first project for switchable battery electric cars approved by the Commission.

The project calls for the ‘EasyBat’ Consortium to develop ‘off-the-shelf’ automotive grade components and interfaces that enable the auto industry to easily integrate battery switching technology into their electric car platforms. The first large scale application of battery switching technology will be shown by Better Place and Renault with the commercial launch of the Renault Fluence ZE by year end.

The EasyBat solution will consist of interfaces for switching a battery in and out of an electric car quickly and safely; the connector interfaces between the car, the battery, the communications network, and the battery cooling system; and design specifications that meet European industry and safety standards. The solution will be integrated and tested on fully electric vehicles to ensure it meets production-grade manufacturing criteria and European safety standards.

Upon conclusion, EasyBat will have a next generation, commercially available solution for battery switch integration components and design plans that allow for different types of batteries, not just a single standardised battery. Car manufacturers that want to focus on proprietary battery technology can do so and still be able to integrate their technology into a switchable battery electric car platform as envisioned by EasyBat.

Part of the Seventh EU Framework Program (FP7), EasyBat is a 30-month project, which is expected to run until June 2013. The European Commission will contribute €2.2 million to fund the project.

Related Content

  • July 23, 2012
    Improving the positional accuracy of GNSS road user charging
    The European GINA project is intended to address and overcome many of the institutional, technical and public acceptance hurdles currently faced by satellite-based road user charging schemes. Dave Tindall and Denis Naberezhnykh, TRL, and Laure Dezes, ERF, write. Pay-as-you-drive Road User Charging (RUC), whereby demand (or congestion) is managed by applying appropriate tariffs in order to encourage drivers to make their journeys at less busy times, on less congested routes or even on different modes, could
    Read More
  • September 15, 2016
    Deadlines approach for Europe’s automatic crash alert system
    The EU-co-funded I_ HeERO (Infrastructure_ Harmonised eCall European Pilot) project is working to ensure the readiness of national networks of call centres - known as public safety answering posts (PSAPs) - to deal with automated crash alerts arriving via the continent-wide 112 emergency phone number. Following on from its HeERO and HeERO2 pre-deployment predecessors, which enjoyed €16m (US$17.76m) in EU funding, the new initiative runs from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2017. It has €30.9 million (US$34.
    Read More
  • April 23, 2012
    IBM Research boosts Battery 500 project
    IBM has announced that two industry leaders, Asahi Kasei and Central Glass, will join its Battery 500 Project team and collaborate on far-reaching research with the potential to accelerate the switch from gasoline to electricity as the primary power source for vehicles. In 2009, IBM Research pioneered a sustainable mobility project to develop lithium-air battery technology capable of powering a family-sized electric car for approximately 500 miles (800 km) on a single charge.
    Read More
  • December 4, 2013
    EETS: still struggling to become reality
    Erich Erker, Norbert Schindler, Peter Tschulik from Siemens Electronic Tolling examine the barriers to EETS deployment. Tolling in Europe was introduced to pay for the construction and operation of individual tunnels, bridges and highways and has evolved in major steps. The original manual tolling systems were highly disruptive to traffic flow and required the creation of large toll plazas, with multiple lanes and toll booths to ensure an acceptable throughput. With the introduction of Dedicated Short Range
    Read More

Highlighted Content