Akasol places another production equipment order

The new equipment will be used to manufacture the new AKASystem AKM CYC ultra-high-energy battery systems starting in mid-2021. The total investment volume for the project will be in the low double-digit million euro range, including an option for additional production lines in Akasol's Gigafactory 2 in Hazel Park, Michigan, as well as for the further expansion of the Darmstadt production site. In response to follow-up orders from long-standing serial customers, Akasol had already increased production capacity at its Langen site in March with the installation of second production line to up to 800 MWh, more than doubled relative to 2019. The company will now continue to build up production capacity with the construction of Gigafactory 1 at its new headquarters in Darmstadt in order to cope with the dynamic growth expected in the coming years. From mid-2021 onwards, this new site will commence serial production of Akasol's third-generation battery system, the ultra-high energy AKASystem AKM CYC. Compared to the first generation of the battery systems, the new system has double the amount of energy with the same amount of space and weight, and thus enables the highest range requirements of up to 800 kilometers in fully electric buses and commercial vehicles. As recently as early February, Akasol commissioned Manz AG in Reutlingen to develop and supply fully automated production equipment for the production of ultra-high-energy battery modules. Akasol has now reached an agreement with Woll, which specializes in mechanical engineering, to develop and supply a highly automated production line for the manufacture of its new ultra-high-energy battery systems, equipped with ten of these modules. The highly automated production line will manufacture up to 70 ultra-high-energy battery systems a day, each with a storage capacity of about 100 kWh. The fully automated work steps – from the insertion of individual battery modules through to the screwing of the approx. 500 kg “light” finished battery systems – are linked to Industry 4.0-compatible human-machine manual workstations across the production line with a total length of 100 meters. The new Gigafactory 1 will have enough space for installation of a second production line of the same type. As a result, annual production capacity at the Darmstadt site could be increased to as high as 5 GWh in the future.