ION Energy launches BMS for EVs and grid-scale storage ION Energy, a battery technology company that specializes in battery management and intelligence, has launched the FS-XT, a battery management system targeted at EVs and grid-scale storage systems. To manage the high-voltage batteries needed in EVs, the FS-XT has a modular design based on a master-slave configuration. This allows manufacturers to use the BMS for any application between 100 and 1,000 volts. The master BMS contains 4 channels, each of which can be connected to 10 slave BMSs in a daisy chain formation, allowing manufacturers to scale the FS-XT to manage up to 720 cells in series. ION Energy says this versatility will allow the FS-XT to be used across a wide variety of nextgeneration EVs. By 2020, ION hopes to have 1 GWh of batteries under management, with the FS-XT accounting for 60% of that total. ION Energy CEO Akhil Aryan said, “Battery power is finding all sorts of applications from forklifts and cars to grid-scale energy storage systems. To be ahead of the curve of this acceleration in adoption of Li-ion batteries, we’ve launched the FS-XT, our battery management system for high-power applications.”
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Image courtesy of Linear Labs
Image courtesy of ION Energy
THE TECH
Linear Labs raises $4.5 million to market its electric motor Electric motor manufacturer Linear Labs has closed a $4.5-million funding round to market its flagship motor, the Hunstable Electric Turbine. The Hunstable Electric Turbine uses multiple rotors. Compared to available permanent magnet motors, Linear Labs says its motor produces twice the torque, three times the power density, two times the output and 10 percent more range. “This is a major accomplishment by an electric motor, which supersedes other commercially available electric propulsion units,” said Babak Fahimi, Founding Director of the Renewable Energy and Vehicular Technology Laboratory at the University of Texas at Dallas. “I believe that the deployment and commercialization of the Hunstable Electric Turbine will result in substantial leaps in terms of energy savings, reliability enhancement and low-cost manufacturing.” “The Hunstable Electric Turbine motor has variable speed and twice the torque while using less voltage, which means it can help electric cars have better range and reduced productions costs and switch ACs to singlestage motors that shut on and off to hold a temperature,” said Peter Pham, co-founder of Science Inc., which participated in the funding round.