German automaker Volkswagen is investing C$69 million ($48 million) to acquire a 9.9% stake in lithium exploration company Patriot Battery Metals and secure an offtake commitment for its battery manufacturer PowerCo to supply 100,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate per year over a 10-year term and a potential 5-year extension period. Patriot will use the proceeds from… Read more…

Sponsored by Starline. EV charging station providers often struggle to keep up with high upfront site-ready costs, existing infrastructure limitations, and inflexible, hardwired electrical infrastructure pose significant problems for installers. The need for flexible, versatile and scalable charging station infrastructure is critical. Choosing the right power distribution solution is a vital decision that depends on… Read more…

GreenPower Motor, a US manufacturer and distributor of electric medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, has received three orders for 11 electric BEAST school buses for school districts in Arizona, California and Oregon. The orders are from GreenPower’s California dealer Model 1 for seven buses for the Los Baños Unified School District; from its Arizona dealer RWC… Read more…

If you’re a decision-maker for a commercial vehicle fleet that’s considering going electric, one of the best things you can do is to study the experiences of fleets that have successfully electrified. Quality Custom Distribution, a division of Golden State Foods, has been using EVs in its operations for the last couple of years. FleetOwner’s… Read more…

South Korea’s LG Energy Solution has launched its Battery Innovation Contest (BIC) 2025 to identify and support the next generation of battery technologies. Since its inaugural competition in 2017, BIC has been LG Energy Solution’s flagship research contest. This year’s edition has been revamped to foster greater collaboration between academia and industry. Selected researchers will… Read more…

Chinese manufacturer Lyric has shipped its solid-state battery front-end equipment to its first US customer. Lyric’s Z-shape stacking machine achieves an efficient stacking speed of 0.1 s/pcs and ultra-high precision alignment of ±0.3 mm, according to the company. The double planetary mixer mixes various viscosity materials, enabling flexibility, and enhances the safety and efficiency of… Read more…

While some EV startups target the luxury vehicle market, Aptera Motors has taken a different path—the company set out to build the most efficient EV possible, and it’s now getting very close to production. At CES 2025, Aptera presented its production-ready solar electric vehicle (sEV), which it says offers “unmatched energy efficiency, freedom from conventional… Read more…

Chinese EVs are here, and “Western” automakers are in trouble. That was the message EV journalists brought home from the CES show. Prolific EV industry pundit James Carter noted that few of the legacy automakers had any EVs on display at CES—the Sony/Honda partnership Afeela rehashed a concept car that’s been kicking around the shows… Read more…

Poland-headquartered bus manufacturer Solaris Bus & Coach has signed a contract with Swedish transport operator Keolis Sverige to supply 27 Solaris Urbino 15 LE electric models, to be delivered in 2025, and 19 Solaris Urbino 12 electric buses, to be delivered in 2026. The vehicles will serve routes in Sweden’s Dalarna region. The 15-meter Solaris… Read more…

Swedish EV manufacturer Polestar has started US production of the long-range single-motor variant of its Polestar 3 SUV at the plant near Charleston, South Carolina, that it shares with Volvo. The model has a certified WLTP range of up to 438 miles and a certified EPA range of up to 350 miles. It uses the… Read more…

German automotive parts supplier ZF has signed a deal with a global manufacturer that includes planned volume production of brake-by-wire technology to equip nearly 5 million vehicles with electro-mechanical braking (EMB) over the length of the contract. Featuring the electro-mechanical brake and by-wire technology on the rear brakes, the project will also include ZF’s integrated… Read more…

The Federal Highway Administration has awarded $635 million in grants in Round 2 of the agency’s Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Program, funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The grants fund 49 projects that will deploy more than 11,500 EV charging ports, as well as [sigh] hydrogen and natural gas fueling infrastructure along corridors and in… Read more…

Ace Green Recycling, a provider of sustainable battery recycling technology, has secured a site in Mundra, Gujarat, to build what it says will be India’s largest battery recycling facility. The site is strategically located near major ports handling over 10% of India’s maritime cargo. The facility will build on Ace’s existing operations, which have been… Read more…

Global mining group Rio Tinto has approved an investment of $2.5 billion to expand its first commercial-scale lithium operation, the Rincon project in Argentina.  Plans call for an increase in annual production capacity of battery-grade lithium carbonate from the current starter plant capacity of 3,000 tonnes (3,307 US tons) to a total of 60,000 tonnes… Read more…

Invest WindsorEssex, the lead economic development agency for the Windsor-Essex region in Ontario, Canada, has announced over $3.8 million in funding to launch the Battery Boost: Technical Training for Battery Manufacturing Careers program. The technical training initiative targets laid-off workers or those seeking a career change, and is designed to equip them with skills for… Read more…

Sponsored by Keysight. Debugging complex electronic systems in automotive applications can be daunting. One key challenge is ensuring proper communication between transmitters, receivers, and sensors by analyzing the captured serial bus data and decoding it into meaningful symbols. This requires an oscilloscope with serial protocol analysis, deep and segmented memory, and a fast waveform update… Read more…

The state of Colorado has announced $17.3 million in new grant awards through the Direct Current Fast Charging (DCFC) Plazas program to install 172 new fast-charging ports at 29 locations across the state. The grants will be funded from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Program and the state’s Community Access Enterprise (CAE). The NEVI-supported… Read more…

Swedish roll on/roll off cargo and passenger vessel supplier Stena RoRo has taken delivery of hybrid ship Guillaume de Normandie from the Chinese shipyard CMI Jinling (Weihai), which it has long-term chartered to the French shipping company Brittany Ferries. The vessel will be powered by multi-fuel engines as well as a 12 MWh hybrid package,… Read more…

Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada have devised a new electrolyte design that enables a highly efficient magnesium battery anode. Magnesium is much more abundant and less costly than lithium, which would help further sustainable energy storage. However, initial research on magnesium-based batteries generated 1 V, less than a standard AA battery, which… Read more…

German automaker Porsche and Austrian boat builder Frauscher Shipyard have debuted, in a limited first edition of 25 units, the Frauscher x Porsche 850 Fantom runabout sports boat featuring a closed foredeck and cabin.  The boat is equipped with the same electric drive unit from the Porsche Macan Turbo sports car that powers the previously-introduced… Read more…