Interview with IRIZAR

“Our efforts in this project are directed towards ensuring and providing the consortium end-user specifications and real-use conditions required to perform the experimental tests campaign to validate the simulations” – Interview with IRIZAR

Q: What is the main role of your entity in DEFACTO?

A: IRIZAR e-mobility is a company focused on offering electromobility solutions for urban environments, mainly 100 % electric buses.  As a leader in the design and manufacture of zero-emission electric buses, Irizar e-mobility is currently actively involved in the EU-project DEFACTO to bring specific requirements about battery cell design and performance to develop multiphysics and multiscale modelling tools to better understand the material behavior and the manufacturing process, therefore unlocking an innovation-led cell manufacturing industry in Europe. Our efforts in this project are directed towards ensuring and providing the consortium end-user specifications and real-use conditions required to perform the experimental tests campaign to validate the simulations. Thus, a deep understanding of the key parameters to reach achieved the greatest possible energy efficiency increased the bus’s range and durability of today’s batteries.

Q: What are your expectations from the project?

A: IRIZAR e-mobility aims to promote the use of clean and accessible transport which is committed to the environment and the well-being and health of people, and enables the creation of a better and more sustainable society. Our goal is to make public passenger transport progressively safer, more efficient, and sustainable, and reduce the impact of local air emissions, noise pollution, and accident rates.

Thoroughly experimental test campaigns will be addressed for cell aging mechanism understanding for each of the chemistry cells analyzed in the project using current usage conditions for batteries in electric buses. The ability to optimize and manufacture Li-ion cells can be substantially accelerated by means of effective and adaptive simulation frameworks. This is a key competitive factor of the rising EU-cell manufacturing industry focused on the e-mobility sector by offering the possibility of optimizing the performance and profitability of the e-bus fleets. We have the first-hand experience of offering constant updates to the in-built systems to respond effectively to the challenge of maximizing the service life of each electric bus, thereby optimizing the value of its assets.

The project allows us to establish partnerships with cell manufacturers, other end-users, etc. achieving a strengthened market position in Europe. While most OEMs outsource cell production to Asia, our company may start exploiting the European-based value chain: a stronger and closest relationship may improve the ad-hoc cell design for their specific industrial needs.

Q: Can you elaborate on the work you are doing/planning to do?

A: IRIZAR e-mobility coordinates the cell and testing specification requirements according to the real needs of automotive applications. We do so by setting up and facilitating the multiple cross-exchanges between modelling and experimental teams from partners.

The defined testing protocol can be used to explore the validity domain of simulation but also to represent a different types of requests regarding the final application. Indeed, we provided the consortium cell requirements based on two power use profiles for batteries in electric buses: on one side, real automotive cycles, and on the other, more ambitious scenarios with expected performance targets in the upcoming years. We oversaw the contribution of the other partners providing the cell requirements in terms of operating voltage range, gravimetric energy density, cycle life, cell cost, and charging time.