The EU has come out with a €3 billion commitment to fund the development of Lithium Ion batteries, coming late to the party to initiate pure R&D funding. It says this will stimulate a further €5 billion of public funds to equate to an €8 billion increase in European funding for Lithium Ion batteries – not for production, but purely for development breakthroughs. Those players who will get funding are a combination of car makers, materials specialists, battery designers and educational institutes, headlined by names like BMW, chemicals giant BASF, Enel X, the energy storage arm of Enel, Nanocyl a maker of carbon nanotubes for containing Lithium Ion, as well as Germany’s Varta and Spain’s Endurance from the battery manufacturers…