BATTECH, the preeminent battery R&D and innovation centre in southern Europe, is leading two strategic electric mobility projects to develop batteries for electric vehicles which are lighter, more sustainable and free of critical materials such as cobalt. The projects’ combined budgets stand at over €23 million.
One of them is the MARBEL European consortium, coordinated by Eurecat and funded with a budget of €11,703,385, which is to design, develop and demonstrate a new compact, modular, weight-optimised and high-performance battery pack with longer life and greater energy efficiency in charging and energy use. It is built around a robust and flexible battery management system (BMS) coupled with ultra-fast battery charging and cooling.
The MARBEL European project “is developing a new, lighter and more sustainable battery concept with higher energy density and shorter charging times to fast-track mass market uptake of electric vehicles,” says Alberto Gómez, BATTECH’s technology promoter and technical coordinator of the project.
The second project, led by the IREC and with a budget of €11,857,352, is called COBRA and is developing a new unique, cobalt-free battery system which merges several features including superior energy density, lower cost, increased cycles and reduced critical materials in order to address the current shortcomings of electric vehicle batteries.
