Follow-up order for Akasol: new generation battery system to be provided

German battery supplier Akasol announces that «One of Europe’s leading bus manufacturers is again extending its cooperation with Akasol AG and awarding another long-term follow-up order: From mid-2022 until at least 2024, the Company will supply its ultra-high-energy battery systems for use in the long-standing customer’s new electric buses, with a total volume in the high double-digit-million-euro range. Should the extension option for the delivery of further battery systems come into effect by 2027, as already agreed in the contract, the order volume will rise to a low three-digit-million-euro amount».

Akasol doesn’t name the bus manufacturer involved in this deal. It is known, on the other hand, that the company has been providing battery modules for Volvo Buses and Mercedes. In this specific case, the press release is accompanied by the picture of a Mercedes eCitaro. In late 2020 also a deal with a «the largest Turkish commercial vehicle manufacturer» was made public.

Akasol is in the process of being taken over by BorgWarner.

Akasol new battery systems: 100 kWh per pack

From 2022 onwards, AKASOL will deliver its ultra-high-energy battery systems with completely new technology to the major customer as part of the follow-up order that has now been placed. With approx. 100 kWh per pack, the new ultra-high-energy battery system AKASystem AKM CYC has twice the energy density of the battery system generations previously supplied to the customer, Akasol points out. Depending on the configuration installed, the system enables the highest range requirements in real operation of electric buses or trucks. 

In our market, we are clearly seeing more and more cities and local governments around the world initiating projects to achieve emissions free public transportation

Akasol CEO Sven Schulz

Akasol CEO Sven Schulz summarized the situation: “We are pleased to be able to report such good news about the strengthening of our growth path in the second quarter of the new financial year. The current order represents the second extension of the cooperation between our long-term customer and Akasol and is at the same time a great vote of confidence in our extensive expertise in the field of powerful lithium-ion battery systems for electric buses.”

Serial production for another customer is ready

“The ultra-high-energy battery systems commissioned will be produced on fully automated production lines in our new Gigafactory 1 in Darmstadt. Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, we are making good progress there with the final construction work. From the middle of this year, we are projected to launch serial production of the new battery system for another customer,” according to Klaus-Dieter Nagel, Senior Vice President Operations at AKASOL AG.

The new Gigafactory has enough space to expand its capacity to up to 5 GWh based on customer demand. “With the follow-up order, we will gradually increase our production capacities in Gigafactory 1 over the coming quarters,” Nagel pointed out. Working on the fully automated production lines, up to 70 ultra-high-energy battery systems will be produced daily, each with a storage capacity of approximately 100 kWh. The fully automated work steps are linked on the 100-meter-long production line with Industry 4.0 compatible human-machine manual workstations. “High process efficiency is an essential part of our capability of offering our customers attractive pricing, even in a competitive market environment.”