CATL is planning its first battery plant in Beijing – probably to supply Li Auto and Xiaomi in the future. Construction of the production facility is set to begin this year. CATL is not yet represented in the Chinese capital. Read more…

Volkswagen is negotiating with the French company Blue Solutions, which already produces solid-state batteries for Daimler electric buses. The aim is to adapt the battery design for cars. Both sides are said to have ambitions for a joint development cooperation. Read more…

Northvolt announces a new project financing of 5 billion US dollars. With this loan, Northvolt now has more than 13 billion US dollars in equity and debt capital to drive its expansion in Europe and North America. Read more…

The US truck manufacturer Xos and EV manufacturer ElectraMeccanica have entered “into a definite agreement” to combine their businesses. This comes after a previous deal between ElectraMeccanica and British electric truck manufacturer Tevva ended in a legal dispute. Read more…

Audi is getting a new boss for China. Johannes Roscheck will manage the brand’s operating business there as President of Audi China starting 1 April. It is one of the first personnel decisions in the management team of the new Audi CEO Gernot Döllner. Read more…

Mercedes-Benz Vans has started selling the new eSprinter. The new edition of the electric van, which was presented around a year ago, is now available to order as a panel van in combination with 56 kWh or 113 kWh of usable battery capacity. Read more…

The first fully electric ambulance in London entered service on NYE. The London Ambulance Service (LAS) expects four custom-made emergency EVs this year ahead of expanding the fleet. Read more…

Uber and Kia are tightening their cooperation over Kia’s new ‘Platform-Beyond-Vehicle’ models. During CES, they agreed to work together on specialised PBVs and expand the range of EVs currently available on Uber. Read more…

The US infrastructure firm announced it will cease Australian operations next month. In an email, ChargePoint told its customers it will “no longer maintain a presence in Australia” from 1 February 2024. Read more…

The Belgian bus manufacturer Van Hool has received a new order for 112 electric buses from Qbuzz. Specifically, the Dutch public transport operator is ordering 56 electric buses of 13 and 15 meters in length from Van Hool to be deployed in the province of South Holland from December 2024. Read more…

Investigators from the EU Commission will apparently be visiting BYD, Geely and SAIC in the coming weeks as part of the ongoing anti-dumping investigation into EV imports from China. Non-Chinese brands producing in China, such as Tesla, Renault and BMW, are not expected to be affected. Read more…

LG Electronics has opened its first production facility for EV chargers in the US. The factory in Fort Worth, Texas, is now producing chargers for the North American market and will have an annual output of more than 10,000 units. Read more…

Hexagon Purus has raised the equivalent of around 88.5 million euros in fresh capital. The Norwegian company intends to use the funds primarily to expand its production capacities for hydrogen tanks. Read more…

Lucid Motors produced 8,428 electric cars last year and delivered 6,001 units. This puts the US electric car manufacturer in the volume range that it had stated in November following multiple corrections to its target figures. Read more…

Hyundai’s air taxi division has brought another flying cab to this year’s CES and says its four-passenger eVTOL will be ready to fly by 2028. That’s later than expected. Read more…

Blackstone Technology, the insolvent German battery division of Swiss commodities company Blackstone Resources, will likely be sold in pieces. So far, no one has shown any interest in taking over the entire production site. Read more…

Panasonic is working to increase the capacity of its 2170 round cells. Panasonic CTO Shoichiro Watanabe expects the new cells to enter production this year or in 2025 at the factory the company jointly operates with Tesla in Nevada. Read more…

Pascal Wehrlein has won the Mexico City E-Prix, the opening race of this year’s Formula E season, in the Porsche 99X Electric. This year, it appears to be a duel between the Porsche and Jaguar drive systems once again. Read more…

The Bavarian electric air-taxi company Lilium has announced a strategic partnership with the airport operator Fraport to develop a commercial eVTOL network. The partnership will primarily look at necessary planning and approval steps for eVTOL operation, first in Germany and then in other EU countries. Read more…

Veolia has completed phase one of its vehicle-to-grid trial and is taking it into the heart of London. The country’s largest waste management firm will reutilise its Westminster fleet of electric waste trucks to double as a power source for National Grid ahead of electrifying the entire fleet.
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