Governments in North America and Europe are seriously concerned about China’s growing dominance of the EV industry. Chinese automaker BYD recently surpassed Tesla as the world’s leading seller of EVs, and it’s only one of several Chinese-owned brands that are already selling cars in the US and the EU. However, the world’s #2 and #3… Read more…

German automotive and arms manufacturer Rheinmetall has won an order for several hundred thousand high-voltage electric coolant pumps. This is the customer’s first electric truck division order and is worth a figure in the mid-two-digit million-euro range. High-voltage CWA 2000 pumps are designed for use in 800 V architecture. Glandless design and bearings made for… Read more…

Proterra’s filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection took the EV industry by surprise, but the blow was softened by the company’s plan to sell off its business units: Proterra Powered (powertrain and battery technology); Proterra Transit (electric buses); and Proterra Energy (charging infrastructure). In November, the Volvo Group was selected as the winning bidder for Proterra Powered…. Read more…

Several companies are working on battery-electric aircraft, but electric aviation is a tougher nut to crack than electric cars, for physical reasons. It simply takes a lot more energy to keep an aircraft aloft than it does to propel a vehicle along a road, and every additional pound of battery weight takes a steep toll… Read more…

Many fleets are going electric, but to the best of our knowledge, none are doing so on the same scale as Amazon. The company says it’s now operating some 10,000 of the delivery trucks that it co-developed with Rivian, and it hopes to roll out 100,000 electric trucks by 2030. Building the trucks appears to… Read more…

Here at Charged, we don’t devote much time to debunking anti-EV misinformation—the enemies of the future flood the zone with FUD 24/7, and responding to even a fraction of it might leave no time for anything else. However, a recent article in Carbon Brief is so comprehensive and well-researched that we just had to bring… Read more…

Retail giant Costco has installed on-site solar generation at a new electric truck charging project in southern California. Costco contracted Washington-based Trinity Structures to design and build an off-grid rooftop solar system at its distribution center in Mira Loma. Trinity completed the project in four months. The “solar electrification structure,” as Trinity calls it, is… Read more…

EV education and advocacy organization Plug In America has received a grant from the DOE for a three-year, $5-million consumer education project, the largest grant in the organization’s 15-year history. This grant is part of a slate of 16 projects to advance transportation electrification that will be funded throught the DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office to… Read more…

Circuit protection specialist Littelfuse has introduced a new overtemperature detection platform for Li-ion battery systems. The new TTape system is designed to help vehicle systems manage premature cell aging effectively while reducing the risks associated with thermal runaway incidents. Littelfuse explains that TTape is suited for a wide range of applications, including EVs, hybrids and… Read more…

Electrifying heavy-duty trucks is essential if we’re to fight climate change and air pollution, but the pace of the transition has been painfully slow—many, many pilots, but few truly large-scale orders. For example, shipping giant Schneider acquired 92 Freightliner eCascadias in 2023—a good start, but only that, considering that the company currently operates over 10,000… Read more…

The Biden-Harris Administration has announced $623 million worth of grants for public EV charging projects, the first tranche of $2.5 billion that will be invested under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) Discretionary Grant Program. The CFI program complements the $5-billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) formula program, which is administered by… Read more…

UK-Australian battery manufacturing company Gelion and California-based battery technology company Ionblox have inked a joint development agreement (JDA) to create a battery without nickel, cobalt or graphite. The companies aim to deliver safe, high-energy-density, low-cost lithium silicon sulfur (LiSiS) cells for the global EV, eVTOL and drone markets before moving to stationary energy storage. LiSiS… Read more…

AMADA Weld Tech, a manufacturer of laser markers and welding equipment, offers a welding system for EVs, power tools, energy storage and military battery modules. The Jupiter Laser Welding System semi-automatically welds 300x300x300 mm battery modules weighing up to 20 kg. It suits thin- to medium-thick battery tabs containing nickel, Hilumin (nickel-plated steel), aluminum, copper… Read more…

Georgia-based EVSE installation specialist EnviroSpark has signed a deal with Philadelphia-based multifamily housing provider Scully Company to roll out EV chargers to properties in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Florida. Family-owned Scully acquires, develops, builds and manages apartment communities. Initially, EnviroSpark will install new chargers at seven properties on the East Coast, including Scully’s headquarters in… Read more…

Off-road vehicles may turn out to be one of 2024’s top EV stories. The intrinsic advantages of EVs—silence, lack of local emissions, high torque—make them great choices for applications from construction to agriculture to mining. One off-road OEM exhibiting EVs at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show is Caterpillar. The iconic yellow-machine maker’s entire booth at… Read more…

Forget about range anxiety and charging—the real barrier to EV adoption is affordability. The market badly needs a better selection of lower-priced EVs, but they’re mighty slow in coming. Hyundai has several more affordable EVs in the pipeline—the new 2024 Kona Electric is expected to have a starting price under $33,000. The IONIQ 3 is… Read more…

Battery manufacturing technology provider 24M has unveiled a new battery separator tech called 24M Impervio, which the company says can make EV batteries substantially safer by inhibiting the growth of dendrites (rootlike metal growths that can build up on the anode surface, potentially causing a short-circuit that can lead to a fire). 24M’s Impervio technology… Read more…

As vehicle fleets electrify, they need help with their charging infrastructure, and an ecosystem of companies is developing to meet the demand. The range of offerings is complex and ever-changing—some companies offer one piece of the charging equation (hardware, installation, operations), while others offer turnkey packages that might include not only EVSE, software and services,… Read more…

LG Electronics has opened its first factory in the US for assembling EV charging stations. A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Fort Worth facility was attended by the city’s mayor and other officials. LG already has a huge distribution center for consumer electronics and home appliances in Fort Worth. The new 100,000-square-foot plant will have an… Read more…

Electronics giant Eaton has broken some new ground in the EV charger segment, and the company is showing two innovative new charging systems at CES. Eaton’s Sai Murahari, EVCI Product Manager, showed Charged its EV Smart Breaker line of chargers, which combine an EV charger with a smart circuit breaker. The integrated device fits into… Read more…