Chinese EV battery company Ningbo Contemporary Brunp Lygend (CBL) has agreed to invest $420 million in Indonesia’s nickel mining and EV battery manufacturing industries. Coordinating Maritime and Investment Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Panjaitan said that CBL has partnered with state-owned diversified miner PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) and battery maker PT Industri Baterai Indonesia (IBC). CBL… Read more…

Swedish/Swiss automation company ABB has announced a partnership with Volvo Cars to supply over 1,300 robots and functional packages to help build the automaker’s next generation of EVs. The deal includes functional packages for spot-welding, riveting, dispensing, flow drilling and ultrasonic weld inspection. Volvo Cars will install each ready-to-use hardware, software and services package in… Read more…

Joby Aviation, a company developing electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for commercial passenger service, has announced a collaboration with Atlantic Aviation, a provider of aircraft ground handling and corporate flight support, to electrify aviation infrastructure in New York and Southern California, paving the way for the launch of Joby’s air taxi service. The… Read more…

EnviroSpark runs its own EV charging network and helps others with installations, including Tesla, Volkswagen and Ford. The parlous state of public charging reliability has emerged as a major roadblock to wider EV adoption, and the entire industry is going through a soul-searching phase, trying to identify the roots of the problems and correct them…. Read more…

US energy management technology company Emporia has launched a program designed to streamline the installation of Level 2 EV home chargers, which can involve a complex process of research and comparing installation companies to ensure that a home’s electrical limitations are properly assessed before a vehicle is purchased. Emporia is partnering with selected installers that… Read more…

Sion Power, a developer of next-generation batteries for EVs, has secured $75 million in Series A funding. The round was led by battery manufacturer LG Energy Solution, and included participation from Euclidean Capital and Hillspire. Sion Power’s Licerion technology uses compression in a lithium metal battery to enhance safety, lifetime and recharging rates. Sion has… Read more…

Polish bus manufacturer Solaris has received an order for 50 of its Urbino 18 electric buses from Berlin public transport company BVG, which currently operates more than 120 Solaris Urbino 12 and Urbino 18 buses. Delivery is scheduled for 2024 and 2025. The contract is part of a framework agreement that can be extended over… Read more…

Trucking firms are caught in a bit of a bind—emissions regulations are tightening, but electric heavy-duty trucks come with high upfront costs. A startup called Revoy offers an interesting transitional solution—the Revoy EV is basically a small trailer full of batteries that attaches to a diesel semi-truck to effectively turn it into a hybrid. At… Read more…

Q&A with Lucid’s Battery Cell Technical Specialist Maithri Venkat. When it comes to battery cells for EVs, one size definitely doesn’t fit all. The properties of a particular cell act as constraining factors for every aspect of a vehicle’s design—and not only for vehicle performance parameters such as range and power, but for the development… Read more…

US fleet management company Merchants Fleet has expanded its lease and rental fleet with the addition of 250 new 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV work trucks.  The trucks have an EPA-estimated range of up to 450 miles, a towing capability of up to 10,000 pounds, and a payload of more than 1,400 pounds. Merchants offers the… Read more…

US bus maker Blue Bird has received an order from the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) for 150 of its All American and 30 of its Vision electric school buses. Delivery is anticipated between October 2024 and early 2025. The order was placed through the district’s local Blue Bird dealer, A-Z Bus Sales. LAUSD… Read more…

Marshall County, Mississippi, is the future site of a planned joint venture of Accelera, the zero-emissions segment of Cummins; Daimler Trucks & Buses US Holding, a subsidiary of Daimler Trucks; and US commercial truck maker PACCAR, which produces diesel and electric models under the Kenworth, Peterbilt and DAF brands. Plans call for the 21 GWh… Read more…

The road to a new set of emissions regulations tends to be a long one, winding through committees, public comment periods and court challenges, but as far as a layman can tell, the European Commission has reached the finish line, agreeing on CO2 targets for heavy-duty vehicles that would require phasing out almost all sales… Read more…

Planning, designing and executing an end-to-end EV battery return program doesn’t need to be difficult if you have the right gameplan. This session will highlight best practices and practical solutions ranging from: • Regulations• Package design• OEM and supply chain management• Data and reporting technology• Carrier considerations. This webinar will be hosted by CHARGED on… Read more…

To paraphrase a past American president, every pro-EV policy is only one legislative or court decision away from extinction. President Biden’s IRA and BIL (and pro-EV measures in California and other states) have been under attack on multiple fronts since their inceptions. Uncle Joe recently wielded his veto pen against legislation aimed at delaying investment… Read more…

Veolia, a water, energy and waste recycling services multinational headquartered in France, has presented the results of a successful vehicle-to-grid (V2G) trial that enabled two specially designed bidirectional vehicles to be charged and then to discharge 110 kW of energy, or enough to power 110 households for over two hours during peak evening hours.  Turbo… Read more…

TeraWatt Infrastructure, in partnership with the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT), has been selected to receive $63.8 million in federal grant funding via the US DOT’s Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) grant program. TeraWatt’s grant is one of 47 awarded to projects nationwide in the first $623-million tranche of the CFI program, part of… Read more…

While sales of the Air sedan have been slow, Lucid is planning much greater capacity for the Gravity, a three-row luxury SUV with 440 miles of range. Startup electric-car maker Lucid Motors cut the ribbon Wednesday on a massive expansion of its U.S. assembly plant in Casa Grande, Arizona. The company has built the Lucid… Read more…

Anything powered by an external source of electricity needs to be protected from voltage transients and surges, as it is not a question of whether such hazards will occur, but rather how often they will occur (and of what severity they will be). As might be expected, there are internationally agreed-upon regulations for surge and… Read more…

European vehicle manufacturer MAN Truck & Bus has signed an exclusive cooperation agreement with ABB E-mobility to work together even more closely, particularly in the area of R&D. “Cooperation in the area of research and development is rather rare in our industry,” said Thomas Nickels, Senior VP of Engineering at MAN. “Together with ABB E-mobility,… Read more…