ASPİLSAN Energy General Manager Ahmet Turan Özdemir stated that almost all of the vehicles used by Türkiye's rail system enterprises have ASPİLSAN's rail system battery products and said, "We have localized the battery issue, which provides a large percentage of financial support to the localization rate and constitutes an important cost item of these platforms." he said.

In his statement to the AA correspondent, Özdemir gave information about the company's battery and energy storage activities in a wide range of areas, from rail systems to civilian electric vehicles and military platforms.

Pointing out that almost all of the vehicles used by Türkiye's rail system enterprises have ASPİLSAN's rail system battery products, Özdemir stated that the company's solutions play a critical role in meeting the localization targets, especially in the Metro Istanbul project.

Özdemir stated that the localization targets, which could not be met with the basic components produced by the current ecosystem, were exceeded with ASPİLSAN solutions and said, "We localized the battery issue, which provides financial support to the localization rate with a large percentage and constitutes an important expense item of these platforms. Currently, ASPİLSAN Energy is Türkiye's largest battery manufacturer." he said.

Stating that there are different product types in nickel-cadmium chemistry that meet all the needs of the sector, Özdemir stated that sintered nickel-cadmium batteries are generally used in the aviation sector, which requires higher quality, and that they also have two different solutions, package type and fiber type.

Özdemir stated that fiber type products are both high in quality and competitive in price and said, "We generally use fiber type products in rail system transportation. In addition, we produce solutions in our factory that greatly increase the localization rate and reduce and eliminate energy dependency on platforms. This product has become a more needed expense item as the rail system network develops in Türkiye." he said.

Saying that the battery ecosystem has developed, Özdemir thanked Turkey Rail System Vehicles Industries Inc. (TÜRASAŞ), Republic of Turkey State Railways (TCDD) and municipalities for contributing to the state of the railway ecosystem by increasing the localization rate.

Özdemir stated that the batteries in rail systems are an extremely durable product portfolio that can operate at high and low temperatures, under high vibrations on the rails, without being affected by dust, moisture and water, and said, "Today, we produce nickel-cadmium battery solutions up to 1.5 tons needed in large platforms." he said.

Stating that they have developed various solutions for land, sea, air and rail system platforms, Özdemir stated that in addition to the R&D activities on space batteries, they are also carrying out a separate research process for the certification of higher energy density products for use in rail systems.

"Design center" vision for electric vehicles

Providing information about their capacity for civilian projects such as electric vehicles (EV) and buses/minibuses, Özdemir stated that they currently have battery packs working on a minibus with a capacity of 65 kilowatt hours.

Stating that they can design and produce electric vehicle battery prototypes at the desired value and chemistry, Özdemir said, "Mass production in large quantities requires different investments in electric batteries and vehicle batteries. But for ASPİLSAN Energy, we are a company that can design and produce the electric vehicle battery that any of our customers need in high performance, budget and safety criteria, together with all the testing and certification. We can carry out the entire process here, from design to development, production and certification of the package prototype on a pilot scale." he said.

Stating that ASPİLSAN Enerji serves as a 'design house', Özdemir stated that they design special solutions needed by manned and unmanned ground vehicles and other military platforms and make special productions according to the future requirements of the armies.

Electric vehicles and green transformation in military platforms

Ahmet Turan Özdemir pointed out that electric vehicle solutions are increasing on the military side and underlined the need for "green transformation" of armies.

Özdemir stated that reducing the carbon footprint in military applications has become a strategic necessity and gave the following information:

"The carbon footprint, which is currently 2 percent, will climb to 20 percent in the near future if precautions are not taken. Because we have entered a period where large investments are made for military applications everywhere. Countries have increased their spending on a very large scale. Here, one of the most important components has turned into more discrete, more mobile, more swarm-working devices and robots in the field. An important component of these is electric vehicles. Hybrid storage, which does not start the internal combustion engine for the vehicles, which are often in rest mode, to feed and support the internal grid inside." "We have solutions, but soon they will all be electric."

Özdemir stated that with the developing technology, obstacles such as silence, power, shortening of charging times and life extension have been overcome in military electric vehicles, and concluded his words as follows:

"When we compare budget, cost and performance for projects for which serious budgets are allocated, we can offer the product the customer needs, in the way he wants. With the developing technology, we will start to see more electric vehicles in the air, on land, at sea and in military environments in the future. There is a really big transformation in this direction. We have developed our services and competencies here to meet the needs of this transformation."