Interview with Alex Thaler (ViF)

Can you tell us more about your organsiation’s role in greenSPEED?

VIRTUAL VEHICLE is coordinating the project and in charge of the dissemination, communication and exploitation within greenSPEED. In addition, we are in the leading role for modelling aspects, especially the modelling for single process-steps for cell-production within the project. Modelling and simulation are means to reduce the time-to-market for new technological solutions. The complexity of today’s products, especially a multi-physics/chemical product like a lithium-ion cell, will benefit from these new modelling approaches.

What challenges are you facing when working on the greenSPEED technologies?

When dealing with modelling, the input data is of high importance. Therefore, we make sure that a special data management is established within the project. The involved partners should provide a unique data package covering several cell generations within the project and traceability through all the data used within the simulation runs. Additionally, the complex models must be reduced to the extend, that they can be handled without involving highly skilled experts, but – at the same time – provide the necessary quality of prediction of the final cell.

Why do you think that projects such as greenSPEED are important for the European Battery Production?

Battery business is under high pressure in these times. The market is developing fast, and the competition is big, especially from the Asian industry. Projects such as greenSPEED allow for a high innovative topic to be elaborated by multi-domain partners in a well-defined project environment. Big industry can further develop their products and SMEs are able to place their innovative products within this project environment. Research partners can support these processes with their knowledge and get access to recent data and materials to work with.