Porsche makes a big push in electromobility

“The battery cell is the combustion chamber of the future. As a new Porsche subsidiary, the Cellforce Group will be instrumental in driving forward the research, development, production and sales of high-performance battery cells,” says Oliver Blume, Chairman of the Executive Board at Porsche in a press release. The new venture, in which Porsche has a majority stake of 83.75%, has its headquarters in Tübingen, Germany. The university town is also on the shortlist for the location of the battery factory, which is to be located in close proximity to the research and development center in Weissach as well as the headquarters of Porsche AG in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen. The number of employees is expected to grow from the initial workforce of 13, provided jointly by both companies, to up to 80 by 2025. The Federal Republic of Germany and the state of Baden-Württemberg are funding the project with around EUR 60 million. “We founded Customcells with the aim of developing customer-specific battery cells for the most demanding of applications, and this is exactly what we can now realise together with Porsche. The goal for the planned production plant is to reach a minimum annual capacity of 100 MWh. This is equivalent to high performance batteries for 1,000 vehicles,” says to Torge Thönnessen, CEO of Customcells in the press release. The chemistry of the new high-performance cells relies on silicon as the anode material. With this material, it now seems possible to boost the power density compared to current good series batteries. The battery can offer the same energy content with a smaller size, the company states. The new chemistry reduces the battery’s internal resistance. This allows it to absorb more energy during energy recuperation and at the same time it offers improved performance for fast charging. Another special feature of the Cellforce battery cell is the fact that it is better able to withstand high temperatures. Chemical company BASF has been chosen as a cell development partner for the next generation of lithium-ion batteries. As a part of the collaboration, BASF is exclusively providing high-energy HEDTM NCM cathode materials for high-performance cells that enable fast charging and high energy densities.