According to German newspaper FAZ, electronics giant Bosch is planning to manufacture new silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductors at its factory in Reutlingen. For deploying a pilot line for new SiC chip at the factory, Bosch has reportedly planned an initial investment in the “three-digit million range.”

The first sample of the new SiC chip will be officially presented by Bosch in 2020.

About the new chips, a press statement released by the Bosch headquarters has revealed that the SiC chips are made of a “miracle material.” Bosch has also asserted that the SiC chips have more electrical conductivity as compared to regular silicon chips.

Going by Bosch’s claims, the new SiC chips can lead to an increase of up to 6% in the driving range of an electric vehicle. Moreover, the advantage of the new chips in terms of power electronics is that they can ensure 50% lower energy loss in the form of heat. The reduced heat loss of the new SiC chips and their capability to work at much higher operating temperatures can yield significant cost savings for manufacturers, because they can downsize their expenditure on the cooling of the powertrain components.

With regard to the potential savings enabled by the new SiC chips, Bosch said in its press release: “This saving translates into more efficient power electronics and more energy for the electric motor and therefore for the battery range.”

Chinese battery manufacturer CATL has been officially granted the requisite approval for starting the new construction of its battery cell factory in Erfurt, Germany.

CATL has revealed that the go-ahead for the company’s new battery cell factory construction has been given by Anja Siegesmund, the Minister of the Environment for the Thuringia region. The approval from the Thuringian State Office for the Environment, Mining and Nature Conservation (TLUBN) was eagerly awaited by CATL before commencing the new construction of its Erfurt battery cell factory.

With the official approval now having been received by CATL, the company’s European head Matthias Zentgraf has said that the ground-breaking ceremony at the factory will likely take place in the 2019 fourth quarter.

Zentgraf also said that CATL previously planned to hold the ground-breaking ceremony at the battery cell factory in mid or late September 2019. However, the ceremony was been postponed because the company had not got the due approval from the German authorities.

CATL was earlier planning to commence the battery cell production at the Erfurt factory in 2021, and was aiming at an annual production capacity of 14 GWh. However, the company later expanded its original plans. Initially, CATL’s Chinese headquarters had planned a EUR 240 million investment in the factory by 2022, but in June this year, the planned investment was substantially increased to EUR 1.8 billion by the CATL board of directors.