Increased Visibility for Batteries and EUROBAT in 2011

EUROBAT staff and members participated in numerous events in 2011 representing the association in high level conferences and exhibitions in Europe and in other parts of the world.
Alfons Westgeest, EUROBAT’ Secretary General, spoke among other at the European Electric Vehicle Congress; Batteries 2011; International Congress for Battery Recycling in Venice (together with Mr. Luca Tomassini from FAAM); Brussels Motor Show; EURELECTRIC Smart Cities Workshop and the World Recycling Forum.
David Howard, EU Affairs Officer presented a poster at the International Automobile Recycling Congress in Budapest while Erwin Marckx was a speaker at workshops organised by the Alliance for Rural Electrification (ARE).
Ray Kubis, EnerSys, spoke at the BCI Convention in the US. Tolga Öztutan, MUTLU, and Serkan Salman, INCI AKÜ, at the IRENEC Conference in Istanbul, Turkey. Mario Natalucci, FAAM, spoke at 14th Asian Battery Conference in India. Ermanno Vitali, at the Battery Environmental, Health & Safety Summit in China. EUROBAT members also moderated sessions in different events: Jill Ledger, SAFT, in the Industrial Minerals Graphite Conference in London. Uwe Kohler, JCI, at the European Electric Vehicle Congress.
Press and media were provided data and interviews regarding batteries in electric vehicles or renewable energy storage. Erwin Marckx talked to ARE’s Newsletter. Alfons Westgeest was interviewed by the Cars21 website, the Pan-European Networks Magazine and EU-related newspapers and media, such as European Voice.  

With regards to eMobility and lithium technology development, EUROBAT joined the External Stakeholder Board meeting of the major Green eMotion project and EU Project ELVA - Advanced Electric Vehicle Architectures.  Alfons Westgeest participated at high level discussions related to standards and safety in electric vehicles in the framework of the EU-US Transatlantic Dialogue and the UN-ECE Working Party 29 (Passive Vehicle Safety). He also connected to the US Department of Transport, European Commission and other associations in involved (ACEA, CLEPA and PRBA). EUROBAT representatives engaged also on transportation with the civil airline organization ICAO, and UN-ECE fora.  Overall there is more activity for Lithium technology issues.
Within a CEN CENELEC Focus Group on E-Mobility, EUROBAT was the co-convener of the batteries team, whose mission was to evaluate the existing standards and advise on the creation of new ones. This CEN CENELEC Group issued a final report in October 2011.

In terms of visibility and interest 2011 was definitely a good year for the battery industry. We hope the momentum continues through to 2012 and that it translates to greater market opportunities for the different EUROBAT members.