With the steadily growing share of Germany’s energy supply coming from renewable energy sources and the expansion of e-mobility, the demands on energy storage systems are increasing. Within the framework of the hyPowerRange project, six project partners from industry and research have now set themselves the goal of developing a modularized hybrid energy storage system consisting of various application-specific, high-energy and high-performance cells. The focus will be on increasing the range and performance, while at the same time reducing costs. The challenge of developing such a battery concept is not in combining various cell technologies, but rather in managing them. For this purpose, the battery manufacturer is designing a directly coupled hybrid storage system, which is operated without an intermediate converter. Optimised battery management will enable the simultaneous operation of different cell technologies.

In addition to direct coupling, the hybrid memory is integrated into a higher-level thermal management system in the vehicle in order to increase the battery range. BMZ and Konvekta AG in Hesse are working on this. Heat pumps are to be used to bring the battery and vehicle to the optimum temperature in relation to the range. At the University of Kempten, loads and stresses for the battery as well as for the entire vehicle are being analysed and evaluated. The automotive tuner Abt Sportsline and the Kempten University of Applied Sciences will be using the findings to jointly build a demonstrator. The entire system will then be tested by Fraunhofer IWES.

Funded by the BMWi, the hyPowerRange research project has been running since the beginning of 2017 and is due to be completed by the end of 2019.