Flash Battery wins Mobility Award

Awarded the Esprit project for the research and innovation category created by a company pool including Flash Battery

The quintessential qualities associated with the Italian city of Reggio Emilia have had a big impact on the winning project of the “Premio Mobilità 2018” (2018 Mobility Award), which was launched by the Agenzia per l’Energia e lo Sviluppo Sostenibile (Energy and Sustainable Development Agency) to showcase and promote schemes and initiatives that help to drive the shift towards transport systems revolving around a “zero-carbon strategy”.

The prestigious international accolade was presented by the agency to ESPRIT: a joint project by a group of businesses. It features prominent Italian input from Calerno-based Flash Battery, working alongside the Italian National Research Council (CNR).

The jury awarded esprit for the strong innovative component of the proposal, for the great potential of scaling and replicability of the design idea and for the coherence in the model of business and development of the product.

Marco Righi, CEO of Flash Battery winner of “Mobility Award 2018

ESPRIT is an unprecedented electric car sharing system that helps to reduce noise and air pollution, while also improving urban traffic conditions, encouraging the use of public vehicles and providing ways for people to get around even in areas that are not so well served by local public transport.

“The European research project on which we have worked has led to the development of a totally-electric compact vehicle that has been approved to carry 3 people. The cars can be joined together like a ‘train’, thus optimizing the use of space in the parking areas where people can pick up vehicles to get around town (for reasons such as transporting children and shopping), as well as the charging areas. Every charging station can charge up to eight vehicles at the same time, taking only 5 minutes to do so”

The innovative car sharing system has already been chosen by cities such as Glasgow, Lisbon, Toulouse, Lyon and Barcelona – Flash Battery has contributed its know-how to the production, for each vehicle, of six lithium battery pack specially developed and extremely efficient high-voltage (300 V) battery packs. It has ensured that there is a comprehensive system for all of the necessary communication with the main vehicle control units, while also guaranteeing easy control and maintenance, as well as balance between the battery packs of different vehicles, so that a number are always ready for use.

A warm thank you to all the ESPRIT project team:

CEA – COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES 
LYON SMART DESIGN
LEADEC ENGINEERING GMBH (previously VOITH ENGINEERING SERVICES GMBH)
FAR-UK LTD
TECHNICAL STUDIO
FIRST SOMERSET & AVON LIMITED
KEOLIS SA
AJUNTAMENT DE L’HOSPITALET DE LLOBREGAT
PETER DAVIDSON CONSULTANCY
CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE
VECTOS (SOUTH) LIMITED
THE UNIVERSITY COURT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN
FONDATION PARTENARIAL MOV’EOTEC (VeDecoM)
LUXCONTROL SA
TEAM RED DEUTSCHLAND GMBH
FRANCE AUTOPARTAGE
ARTTIC