Here we go again. The scandal that we dubbed VW’s Dirty Diesel Debacle opened a lot of folks’ eyes to the true priorities of automakers and other corporations. As reported in these pages, VW was truly sorry that it got caught, and performed several acts of contrition—it bought back a fraction of the defective cars,… Read more…

For auto dealerships, adding EVs to their offerings requires some effort—and some substantial cash outlay. Automakers including Ford and GM are giving their dealers a choice—make the necessary investments in training and charging infrastructure, or don’t sell EVs. Akins Ford in Winder, Georgia, the largest dealership by volume in the state (as reported by Georgia… Read more…

Syensqo has completed its spin-off from Solvay, a Belgian chemical company. Now a stand-alone, Euronext-listed company, Syensqo has more than $8.5 billion in annual sales and 13,200 global employees. It has 34 industrial sites and 3 research and innovation centers.  The company’s Materials segment makes high-performance, high-margin Specialty Polymers and Composites, mainly for automotive (including… Read more…

Australian technology company Applied EV has announced its partnership with Dutch vehicle electrical/electronic (E/E) architecture solutions provider NXP Semiconductors to advance safer and more connected autonomous electric mobility. NXP and Applied EV will collaborate on software-defined vehicles and electrical and electronic architecture (EEA) innovation, share ideas and form strategic and production partnerships. Digital Backbone—Applied EV’s… Read more…

LG Energy Solution, a manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries, and Impact Clean Power Technology (ICPT), a supplier of heavy-duty battery systems, have signed a supply agreement for nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) battery modules. LG Energy Solution will ship 200,000 battery modules from its Wroclaw, Poland plant to ICPT’s GigafactoryX in Pruszkow over the next three years to be… Read more…

Zeon, a Japanese chemicals corporation, is preparing to build a Li-ion battery binder production line via its subsidiary Zeon Chemicals at its Texas plant. Zeon expects the new facility to be operational by 2026. Zeon’s Li-ion battery binders include anode, cathode, functional layer (for separator coating) and sealant binders and materials for battery cells. Zeon’s… Read more…

Electric bicycles have quickly become enormously popular—the Light Electric Vehicle Association estimates that some 880,000 were imported to the US in 2021. However, some of them have a way of catching fire unexpectedly, sometimes in residential settings, with unfortunate consequences. At this point, unfortunately, a disclaimer is necessary. This is not one of those “EVs… Read more…

IoTecha, provider of a smart charging platform for EVs, and Hager Energy are collaborating on charging products to power Volkswagen EVs. Volkswagen’s recent announcement of bidirectional charging support for its new ID. models (and existing models through an ID. software update) and availability of a vehicle-to-home (V2H) solution with Hager Energy’s DC home power station… Read more…

UK-based energy supplier OVO and energy software company Kaluza have announced a partnership with Volvo Cars to develop EV managed charging services for Volvo Cars and OVO customers in the UK. One-way smart charging and bidirectional charging from Kaluza are scheduled to launch in 2024, as is the Volvo EX90 SUV, the company’s first vehicle… Read more…

dSPACE, a provider of automotive simulation and validation solutions, will demonstrate several solutions for electric and self-driving cars at the upcoming CES 2024 trade show. As the exclusive on-vehicle computer technology sponsor of the Indy Autonomous Challenge (IAC), dSPACE will demonstrate how its solutions work in demanding racing environments in a night race at the… Read more…

Daimler Truck North America (DTNA) has entered into an agreement with Norway-headquartered Hexagon Purus, a manufacturer of e-mobility products, to provide vehicle integration of the electric Freightliner eM2 for vocational applications. The integration will incorporate Hexagon Purus’s battery systems, auxiliary modules, power modules and vehicle-level software. It will include power-take-off options to supply power to… Read more…

Among the many drawbacks of public charging sites is a perceived lack of security—a feeling familiar to anyone who’s had to use a charger located in a dimly-lit corner of a vast parking lot. SMS, a new UK-based charge point operator, recently published a white paper, “Powering up public EV charging,” that included the results… Read more…

California-headquartered InCharge Energy, a provider of commercial fleet EV charging infrastructure, has integrated its proprietary InControl CMS charge management software with the Geotab Marketplace, a network of fleet-management telematics services. The integration allows fleet managers to view EV data even when their vehicles are not plugged in, according to the company. It offers improvements in… Read more…

The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, which serves Charged’s home city of St Petersburg, Florida, will use $18 million in funding from the VW settlement to acquire 60 Gillig electric buses. “Volkswagen lied and pumped extra pollution into Florida’s air, so they had to pay up. We went after a share of that money to reduce… Read more…

In what appears to be an example of healthy coopetition, Archer Aviation has bought several multimodal chargers from rival eVTOL manufacturer Beta Technologies. Beta says it has delivered two chargers to Archer’s flight test facility in Salinas, California, where Archer is conducting a flight test campaign with its four-passenger Midnight eVTOL air taxi. Both Archer… Read more…

Towing has always been a sore point with EVs—towing a trailer inevitably eats into range, and towing a massive semi-trailer requires a tractor with a massive battery pack. But what if the trailer itself could share the burden? That’s the idea behind Range Energy, which is developing a trailer that’s equipped with a battery pack,… Read more…

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…