Volkswagen, Hyperloop, Saarland University, Delta-Q.

VW part of new battery research centre? A new centre for battery research and development will be set up by Fraunhofer IKTS and IFAM together with TU Braunschweig in Germany (we reported). Now, Fraunhofer president Reimund Neugebauer brought a close cooperation with Volkswagen into the game and said “firm commitments” were made albeit not formally yet.
standort38.de (in German)

Hyperloop to replace airplanes? Germany’s biggest airline Lufthansa shows interest in Elon Musk’s brainchild Hyperloop, German Bild am Sonntag has learnt. First conversations with Hyperloop Transport Technologies (HTT) already took place. Allegedly, Lufthansa has calculated which routes the Hyperloop concept of high-speed travel in tubes could potentially replace, namely Berlin-Munich, Berlin-Cologne, Düsseldorf-Munich and Hamburg-Munich.
bild.de (in German)

From space to street: Computer scientists of the Saarland University in Southwest Germany managed to develop a procedure that allows for better planning of solar battery operations in nano satellites orbiting Earth. According to the researchers, this approach can also be applied down here – for example to calculate battery charges for electric cars much more precisely.
sciencedaily.com

Delta-Q to release new charger: Delta-Q intends to present its first lithium-specific battery charger, the ICL1200 at the ProMat in April. The company seeks to addresses various OEMs and thus, their 1200W charger is suitable for use on any electric machine including scooters and low-speed EVs.
finance.yahoo.com