ERA Successful, Prepares For Finals
We reported earlier about the ERA, a Finnish contender in the X PRIZE. I just heard that the ERA team finished the second shakedown week in Michigan - in which the different cars needed to pass on-the-ground challenges - and they did it in style: The team passed all mandatory and optional tests with the first try, and were the only team to do so!
The ERA team now prepares for the Knockout competition, in which the car will need to demonstrate that it can achieve at least two-thirds of the stated 100 MPGe goal while also meeting expectations for range, emissions, and real world performance. While they prepare, you can have a look at there ERA on the test track in Michigan here or visit the new ERA website. We will keep you up-to-date about the developments of the team, and keep our thumbs up for them!
ERA - The Finnish X PRIZE Contender
Finland sending a competitor to Michigan to compete in the X PRIZE competition for super efficient cars? Right! Last week Metropolia unveiled the Electric RaceAbout - ERA for short - car in the Cable Factory in Helsinki, after which it started the journey to the USA to compete in the competition's test drive phase. Besides fame and the respect of other competitors, the winner will take home USD 10m, and the team around Sami Ruotsalainen looks like a strong contender.
First In Europe: EB Starts Large Lithium-Ion Battery Manufacturing
Last month European Batteries (EB) celebrated the opening of its doors. Phase one of the project will cost close to €40m, which is a very high figure for a startup in Finland. The company was founded in 2008 as a spin-off from FEVT (later on, in September 2009, FEVT merged back into EB). European Batteries produces large format lithium-ion battery systems for energy, industrial and vehicle applications with a range of 3 kWh up to 1 MWh in size.
I had the pleasure of a telephone conversation with EB's new CEO Jukka Koskinen, former CEO of the Finnish company Ensto Oy, last week regarding the issues behind the chosen strategy to be a vertical battery system manufacturer (meaning that EB operates the whole production process from cells to complete system, allowing full control over the quality of the products).
EB's business model is clever: the demand for end-products, the large format lithium-ion battery systems, is based on cost-efficient, long-lasting and safe energy storage solutions. The energy content (Wh/kg) of lithium-ion batteries is about three times that of lead-acid batteries and double that of nickel-based batteries. The key customer group during the first phase is the transportation industry, EV car and delivery van producers.
