Komatsu America, a subsidiary of global construction and mining equipment giant Komatsu, has agreed to acquire Detroit-based battery manufacturer American Battery Solutions. ABS develops and manufactures a wide variety of heavy-duty and industrial battery packs for commercial vehicles, transit buses and other on- and off-road vehicles. The company provides both standard battery packs and custom… Read more…

Too-frequent DC fast charging can theoretically damage an EV’s battery, causing it to lose capacity, and thus driving range, faster than would otherwise be the case. However, there’s little hard data on the long-term effects of frequent fast charging. Now battery data specialist Recurrent has made a substantial contribution to the literature on the subject…. Read more…

It’s been a long time since auto industry observers have seen Toyota as an innovator, so it was a pleasant surprise when the world’s second-largest automaker demonstrated a version of the die-casting process pioneered by Tesla, using a massive hydraulic press to cast the entire rear third of an auto chassis as a single piece…. Read more…

Mercedes-Benz is developing its own public charging network, and it has chosen SwissAI to provide network planning and site selection services. SwissAI’s AI-based analysis and forecasting SaaS platform, AIOME, is designed to facilitate location selection and charging infrastructure deployment. By the end of the decade, Mercedes-Benz Mobility plans to build some 2,000 charging hubs with… Read more…

Oil and gas giant ExxonMobil and German auto brand Porsche have collaborated to introduce a 3-in-1 thermal management fluid for an electric racing car. The Mobil 1 thermal management fluid meets the needs of the Porsche GT4 e-Performance, a racing car with a new cooling system. The Porsche GT4 e-Performance can deliver a peak output… Read more…

CarMax, a major national retailer of used cars, has begun pilot operation of its first electric semi-truck. The company is using a Freightliner eCascadia as a vehicle hauler in California’s San Joaquin Valley. The truck can transport up to seven vehicles at a time, and has a range of around 230 miles, which enables it… Read more…

St. Petersburg, Florida is known as a boater’s paradise (and of course, the epicenter of EV journalism), so John Vo, the former Global Head of Manufacturing at Tesla, saw it as the perfect site for his new electric boat company, Blue Innovations Group (BIG). Only about a year after setting up shop in the suburb… Read more…

Green Battery Minerals and Volt Carbon Technologies are working together to develop battery anodes made with high-grade graphite. Testing of graphite refined from Green Battery’s Berkwood property confirmed its suitability for lithium-ion batteries, and now Volt has begun battery anode development using Green Battery graphite. Using the super-jumbo flake graphite concentrate derived from rock samples… Read more…

Colorado-based CIE Solutions builds a variety of custom battery packs for specialized applications. Its new MonoLith Battery System is a versatile and scalable battery pack that can be customized to fit into a vast variety of motive and stationary applications. The MonoLith features a flat-pack design, a liquid-cooled architecture and sophisticated internal logic controls.​ It’s… Read more…

Mining involves some of the most extreme energy requirements of any industrial process. To extract the minerals needed to power our technological lifestyle, billions of tons of rock have to be dug up, transported, crushed and processed, generally at remote locations. Regardless of what the “We love EVs, but…” crowd incessantly claims, the transition to… Read more…

The doleful reliability performance of public EV charging infrastructure isn’t news to anyone, and charging providers and government regulators are working to identify the problems and address them. However, as Canary Media reports in the second installment of a three-part series on public charging, one of the metrics that the white hats are relying on… Read more…

The Chinese are coming…or have they already arrived? Established EV brands fear (or if they don’t, they should) that Chinese firms will start cutting into their market share. In at least one global market, this may already be happening. The Driven reports that in Australia, EV sales have already hit a milestone in 2023, surpassing… Read more…

British EV charger manufacturer myenergi’s zappi smart charger now integrates with UK-based renewable energy group Octopus Energy’s Intelligent Octopus Go tariff, which allows access to six hours of low-cost energy each night. The zappi charger is certified as fully compliant with the UK Electric Vehicle Smart Charge Point Regulations. It was already capable of integrating… Read more…

UK-based EV charging network bp pulse is adding ultra-fast and rapid charge points at around 100 Henderson Group retail locations in Northern Ireland.  More than 40 bp pulse charge points are already available at more than 20 bp and Henderson Retail sites. Plans call for up to 200 charge points at Henderson locations by 2025,… Read more…

A favorite argument of the anti-EV crowd (or perhaps I should say, the crowd that “loves EVs,” but just wants to delay adoption for a decade or two) is a lack of sufficient charging infrastructure. Recently, truck manufacturers including Volvo and Daimler (big EV fans both) asked the EPA for a three-year delay of the… Read more…

German EV charging management platform Plugsurfing has introduced a route planner tool for finding chargers along any desired route across 27 European countries. The company’s network currently encompasses 600,000 charge points. The route planner is powered by Amsterdam-headquartered Chargetrip’s range prediction and EV routing platform. It uses an algorithm that includes up to 15 parameters… Read more…

Charging software provider AmpUp has been awarded up to $1.7 million in funding from the state of Connecticut’s Innovative Energy Solutions program for a charging management pilot. The goal of the project is to provide grid operators with a scalable solution to balance energy demand during peak periods by decreasing load at EV charging stations…. Read more…

Battery-makers are eagerly researching ways to incorporate silicon, which can potentially store 10 times as much energy as graphite, into anodes. Now silicon anode specialist GDI says it has developed a 100% silicon roll-to-roll processed anode for next-generation batteries, potentially enabling graphite-free battery cells that deliver far higher energy density, faster charging and greater safety… Read more…

Mack Trucks, a subsidiary of the Volvo Group, has launched a usage-based leasing option for its MD Electric medium-duty truck, which is expected to go into production late this year (Mack is currently taking orders). The ElectriFi Subscription program allows customers to pay as they go based on monthly miles driven. Chassis and body, charging,… Read more…

Canada-headquartered EV charging network and infrastructure provider FLO will install four solar-powered dual-port CoRe+ chargers at the Pennsylvania headquarters of Phoenix Contact USA, a subsidiary of Phoenix Contact, a German manufacturer of industrial automation, interconnection and interface equipment.  FLO has provided similar charging equipment to Phoenix Contact Canada at locations in Ontario for use by… Read more…