News

New Organization Founded for Light Electric Vehicle Industry

August 14, 2007 by Jeff Shepard

ExtraEnergy, in cooperation with the Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan and other renowned testing organizations, announced the formation of the ’Battery Safety Organization’ (BATSO). Tim Schaefer from Nordhausen, Germany, has been appointed BATSO Project Manager by ExtraEnergy. BATSO is intended to engender the safety of new battery technologies for Light Electric Vehicles (LEVs). Two BATSO testing laboratories have so far been established. BATSO is a test seal to show the safety level of a battery which has been tested according to the standards of BATSO organization.

The creation of BATSO as a project and trade mark is the result of testing LEV batteries for many years. Initially, this happened in cooperation with Deutsche Post AG to find qualified lithium systems that would guarantee range of an electric bike for a full day of mail delivery service.

As Lithium batteries are rapidly becoming the dominant battery technology in Light Electric Vehicles, safety is a major issue. There are dangerous and very safe lithium systems available on the market. BATSO battery safety standard has been designed to provide manufacturers, importers, dealers and consumers reliable information on the safety and ecology of batteries.

The BATSO organization has established two testing laboratories where batteries are tested according to the BATSO safety standards. One lab is located in Karlstein/Frankfurt in Germany, the other one in Hsinchu, Taiwan.

The new manager, Tim Schaefer, is expert on battery safety and transport of large lithium batteries. Schaefer worked at the German subsidiary of LTC Lithium Technology Corp. and GAIA Akkumulatorewerke (Nordhausen-Germany), for more than 10 years.