At the Battery Show North America 2019, AKASOL will present a wide portfolio of new solutions to the battery community. The company’s flagship product is the new high-energy lithium-ion battery AKASystemAKM CYC, which has entered serial development for the battery module and system.

The AKAModule CYC achieves energy density of 221 Wh/kg with liquid-cooled battery modules that are scalable and can be integrated in various system designs at the pack level.

Fully electric city buses can be equipped with battery system capacities between 600-1,000 kWh using the AKASOL system, depending on the vehicle size. The new AKASystem AKM CYC can be fast charged up to 1C—sufficient for today’s fast chargers for commercial vehicles, limited to a maximum power of 500 kW.

The AKAModule CYC comes in two standard versions.

• The small version (AKAModule 64 CYC) is the same size as the standard PHEV VDA battery module and is thermally managed with cooling plates inside the system.

• The large version (AKAModule 150 CYC) has an integrated liquid-cooling structure, which ensures very efficient thermal management of each battery cell in larger module designs.

To achieve a high-energy density in combination with the required charge and discharge power, AKASOL decided to use special 21700 cylindrical cells. These are specifically designed for use in professional and commercial applications in terms of calendar and cycle life.

With this technology AKASOL is able to outperform today’s solid-state technology in terms of price competitiveness and availability, while increasing energy density by approximately 30-40%. The solution also can be used for fast charging, which is particularly important for increasing the uptime of commercial vehicles. AKASOL plans to bring the solution to serial production in 2021 and already has customers starting sample operation by the end of this year.

—Roy Schulde, president, AKASOL Inc.

Second generation AKASystem OEM PRC approaches series production. AKASOL also will introduce the second generation of the AKASystem OEM PRC, the first generation of which powers the Daimler EvoBus eCitaro with an installed capacity of up to 294 kWh.

The second generation will offer more than 33% more energy and achieve approximately 400 kWh installed capacity in the same installation space. The system can achieve charge rates of 2C and can be fast charged (even with smaller installed battery packs) with up to 500 kW at the most powerful charging stations currently on themarket for commercial vehicles.

The second generation AKASystem OEM PRC is currently in the test and validation process and will be available at the end of 2019, going into series production for two major commercial vehicle customers in the middle of 2020. Production will take place at AKASOL’s battery system production facility in Langen, which is already the largest in Europe and will expand to a total capacity of 800 MWh next year.

48V AKARack system in final stages of series development. Another highlight for hybrid- and full-electric vehicle applications will be the 48V solution AKARack. The AKARack is a small 19-inch battery system that can be used for various applications. It comes with 6.5 kWh energy, can achieve C-Rates of up to 2C and has powerful thermal management supported by liquid-cooling architecture.

Since its first presentation at last year’s Battery Show, the AKARack has been developed for serial projects. It will be released mid-2020 as a serial product for construction vehicle and marine applications. Additionally, AKASOL plans to make the AKARack available as a high-voltage solution after the introduction of the 48V version at the end of 2020.