Leclanché battery system for commercial vehicles
Leclanché has developed a battery system for the operation of new and retrofitted electric commercial vehicles. The Swiss manufacturer has given the system an energy capacity of 39.4 kWh per battery pack.
The battery system, called INT-39 Energy, is designed for electric or hybrid commercial vehicles, such as trucks, municipal service vehicles, construction and agricultural vehicles and buses. The battery is installed where the tanks for fossil fuels normally sit. The battery system can also be integrated elsewhere in the vehicle, for example, on buses’ roof. The Swiss company is taking orders immediately. The first deliveries are scheduled for early 2021.
Leclanché describes the battery system as a modular plug-and-play solution. A maximum of eight packs can be combined, which corresponds to a total capacity of up to 315 kWh. It consists of the company’s own M2 battery modules with 60 Ah cells based on graphite-nickel-manganese-cobalt-oxide (G/NMC) and its own battery management system. It also has built-in liquid cooling and thermal overheating protection. The manufacturer insists that the solution comes entirely from European production. Cells and modules are manufactured in Switzerland and Germany.
In terms of fleets’ conversion, the Swiss company can add an optional IoT tool that allows companies to log their remote data and give them real-time access to battery status, performance, and diagnostic data. Leclanché points out that features make the battery solution ideal for optimising fleet operations.
A pack weighs 372 kilogrammes and measures 40.8 x 126.6 x 61.3 centimetres. According to Leclanché, the installed cells offer a cycle life of 8,000 cycles at 80% depth of discharge at 1C/1C. The battery system is available as a 657-volt pack with said 39.4 kWh energy capacity. It can complement an optional IoT tool that allows remote data collection and real-time access to battery status, performance and diagnostic data, according to the company’s headquarters.
“INT-39 Energy is a high energy, safe and efficient lithium-ion battery pack enabling commercial vehicle manufacturers to more easily design and bring to market zero-emission electric vehicles,” says Leclanché CEO Anil Srivastava. The CEO points out that the long-life cells last longer and require less maintenance, which helps vehicle owners optimise their fleet’s total cost of ownership.
Fleet conversions with retrofit solutions represent both fiscal and environmental savings since business owners must not provide outlay for entirely new vehicles.
Srivastava continues that, “On a global basis, transportation is responsible for nearly a quarter of direct carbon dioxide emissions from fuel combustion with 75 per cent of that from on-road vehicles including cars, trucks, buses and motorcycles. Leclanché can play a leading role in supporting the electrification of transportation.”
The battery manufacturer is listed on the Swiss stock exchange. Last Summer, the Swiss company announced a partnership with Eneris Group, which operates out of Poland. At the same time, the company repositioned itself strategically with several joint ventures in Europe. These included two production joint ventures, one in Germany for the production of cells and the other in Switzerland and Poland for the assembly of modules. A third was also considered for France in the summer.
Leclanché operates three main business units: stationary storage solutions, electric transport solutions and dedicated battery systems.
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