Kreisel Electric’s Battery Manufacturing Plant In Austria Nearing Completion

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

Kreisel Electric’s battery manufacturing plant in Austria is reportedly still on schedule, with the facility almost finished according to some of those involved.

If the name isn’t ringing a bell, it’s worth recalling the unofficial long-range BMW i3 concept that we reported on a while back (see: BMW i3 With 55 kWh Battery Highlighted At Electronica Show … By Linear Technology & LION Smart). Also, there was this: Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Kreisel Electric modified Mercedes-Benz G-Class EV.

Going further back, it’s highly worth taking a look at this article: Kreisel — New Battery Competitor In Home Storage & EVs — In Depth.

It’s a pretty interesting company overall. It’s good to see some people in the region taking the auto industry changes that are coming seriously, even if VW Group, BMW, and Daimler seem to be taking their time as much as possible.

Push EVs provides more: “Until now Kreisel has been building their battery packs with tiny 18650 cells, but maybe it’s time to change to a bigger size. Not only Tesla/Panasonic and Samsung SDI are betting on the 21700 form, LG Chem (20650) and Sanyo (20700) already have cylindrical battery cells bigger than the popular 18650 format.”

Larger battery cells will of course speed up battery pack production somewhat (as compared to the use of smaller, and more numerous battery cells) — a useful means of slashing production costs no doubt.

Push EVs notes, though: “The bad news is that while previously Kreisel Electric had plans to offer battery upgrades for various electric cars, the company is now focused in producing battery packs only for new electric cars under big orders/contracts.”

Interesting, I wonder who those big orders will be coming from?

While that’s unfortunate for people who were wanting to convert first-gen EVs, it’s probably a good sign that Kreisel has a very competitive product and automakers are clamoring for it.


Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.

Latest CleanTechnica TV Video


Advertisement
 
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.

James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

James Ayre has 4830 posts and counting. See all posts by James Ayre