Stricter standards for battery tests reduce fire risk

VDE calls for more security for electric vehicles Stricter standards for battery tests reduce fire risk Electric bikes so far, without adequate security checks Frankfurt (ots) - Electric cars can be safer if the testing and approval criteria will be tightened considerably. In particular, the risk of fire in a serious accident is not covered by the currently available tests adequately studied. This was underlined by Wilfried Jäger, Chairman of the Board of the VDE Institute, to the opening of a new battery and environmental test center in Offenbach. Hunter called for new or expanded safety standards not only for cars but for bikes with an electric auxiliary propulsion. Modern lithium-ion batteries have a very high energy density and therefore must be operated in a certain temperature range. Failed to cool in a battery, for example by a short circuit to an accident, threatening the entire overheated battery, in the worst case a fire. The current standards are far from those cases not sufficient. Especially critical is the deviation of actual accidents from those currently prescribed tests. So usually only Quetschtests be carried out where the battery is being slowly squeezed together with a defined force to half. In a real

GE starts mass production of sodium-nickel battery

The U.S. technology giant General Electric has invested 100 million U.S. dollars in a new factory in upstate New York. The plant in Schenectady will employ up to 450 people and new kinds of batteries, which are based on a sodium-nickel-Chemistry, Technology Review reported in its online edition. The current memory should be more durable than conventional lead acid batteries. Main purpose, buffer solutions: Electricity from renewable sources like wind or solar power will thus be cached, to stand by in times of low production.