BATTERY * Germany - Standardisation on the way?

Berlin,Germany -Fleet Europe, by Tim Harrup -14 April 2011: -- The German Automobile Industry Association (VDA), Hans-Georg Frischkorn, spoke about the future of electric vehicles, and in particular batteries. He said that at the moment, the desire was to arrive at standardisation for lithium-ion batteries, but that future new standards for new types of batteries was a possibility. He went on to point out that he proposed standard will define cell dimensions and not requirements for technical features (material usage) or technological features (energy density, lifetime cycle or charge and discharge rates). The main benefit would be in cost, he believed, as the battery represents such a major proportion of the cost of an electric vehicle. He also said that standardisation would lead to clearer competition between battery suppliers...