Volkswagen, BMW, Vattenfall, Alabama, Silicon Mobility.

VW affirms EV strategy: At the annual press conference, VW stated its target to become a market leader in solid-state batteries as well as EV development. A ‘Center of Excellence’ is planned this year and will be followed by a pilot production by 2020 in order to reach what CEO Matthias Muller called “technological leadership in Europe by 2025.” Volkswagen also claimed to be in talks with partners to supply battery cells and hopes to close deals within 2017.
autoexpress.co.uk, volkswagen-media-services.com

BMW turns battery supplier: Vattenfall is to acquire up to 1,000 EV batteries from the German carmaker this year. The 33 kWh batteries are also used in the BMW i3 but the utility is not looking to reuse EV batteries but to rather buy its own. They will serve as storage units for excess energy of Vattenfall’s wind farms, namely in Amsterdam, South Wales, and Hamburg.
vattenfall.com

Ferry retrofit: The Gee’s Bend Ferry in west Alabama will be transformed from diesel-powered into all-electric. The conversion is a joint federal-state project with a 1m dollar grant through the EPA and is believed to make the vessel the only all-electric passenger ferry in the United States.
al.com

Software library for optimisation: Silicon Mobility has developed a software library (OLEA LIB) and app (OLEA APP) for OEMs. It serves to optimise EV, HEV efficiency, battery range and charging speed for products using OLEA chips.
greencarcongress.com, silicon-mobility.com