Faraday Battery Institute, Toshiba, Panasonic, Master Transportation.

New British battery research centre: The UK government has announced a 65m pounds research institute involving seven UK universities to advance EV battery technology. The Faraday Battery Institute gathers academics from Cambridge, Oxford, Warwick, Southhampton, Imperial College London, Newcastle University, and University College London. The founding universities are investing 13.7m pounds to set up a headquarters for the project and aim to foster relationships between businesses and researchers. The institute is part of the government’s Faraday Research Challenge worth a total of 246m GBP over a four year period.
just-auto.com, autocar.co.uk

320 km range after 6 minutes of charging: Such is the promise of Toshiba’s novel SCiB (Super Charge ion Battery), which uses a titanium niobium oxide material to double the capacity of the anode. The battery thus offers high energy density and is capable to endure ultra rapid charging.
greencarcongress.com, electriccarsreport.com

Panasonic to step up battery production: The Japanese corporation said it will increase production of Li-ion batteries at its plant in Himeji, a former TV facility, in the fiscal year from April 2019 to meet the growing global demand for electric vehicles. Domestic manufacturers will be served first and Panasonic is likely to spend millions of yens on the expansion but declined to comment on the size of the investment or the capacity of the plant. It currently operates five Li-ion production facilities in Japan.
japantimes.co.jp, independent.co.uk

Master Transportation is a bus manufacturer from Taiwan that has teamed up with Efficient Drivetrains to develop an all-electric bus scheme for the Taiwanese government. The drives and software from ED will be incorporated in a Master Transportation bus utilizing battery packs from local supplier Yiding. The initial bus will be completed in Q4 of 2017, and is the first such EV to meet the ‘made in Taiwan’ policy.
greencarcongress.com