Vietnamese electric car manufacturer VinFast has started building its first factory in the US. Announced in March 2022, the factory in Chatham County, North Carolina, will produce electric cars, electric buses and batteries for them. The start of operations was originally planned for July 2024, but was later postponed to 2025. In the first phase, […] More…

General Motors will begin producing battery modules at its plant in Ingersoll, Canada, in the second quarter of 2024 to support the company’s increasing production of electric vehicles. Currently, the battery supply is a bottleneck for the plant. The new approximately 37,000-square-foot facility (original specification had been 400,000 square feet) will assemble battery cells into […] More…

Austrian-based automotive supplier Magna will be integrating SiC semiconductors from US-American manufacturer Onsemi in its drive systems for electric vehicles. The two companies have signed a long-term agreement for Onsemi’s EliteSiC silicon carbide power module. Magna will incorporate Onsemi semiconductors into its traction converters to improve the efficiency of electric vehicle motors and therefore their […] More…

The Supervisory Board of Mercedes-Benz has prematurely extended the contract with Chief Executive Officer Ola Källenius by a further five years until 21 May 2029. In addition, the supervisory board extended the contract of Chief Technology Officer Markus Schäfer. When the first reports emerged at the beginning of July that CEO Ola Källenius’ contract was […] More…

Transport for Ireland has announced that driver training, vehicle testing and route piloting have commenced with the first battery-electric buses arriving in Dublin. Wrightbus delivered the first nine electric buses out of the 120 ordered by the National Transport Authority (NTA) in June 2022. Testing, commissioning, and driver familiarisation will continue through August and September […] More…

In Europe, the Chinese battery cell manufacturer Sunwoda plans to build a factory for electric vehicle batteries in Hungary. According to the company’s stock exchange announcement, Sunwoda plans to invest the equivalent of around 250 million euros in the plant. The Hungarian investment promotion agency HIPA has confirmed the location of the Sunwoda plant in […] More…

Ford’s Model e electric car division significantly increased its sales and revenue in the second quarter of 2023, but also widened its losses. Ford is also pushing back a key production target by a year. Specifically, Ford sold about 34,000 electric vehicles from April to June, nearly three times as many as in the first […] More…

Chinese battery cell manufacturer Eve Energy is planning a joint venture to build a factory in Thailand with an annual capacity of at least 6-gigawatt hours. The joint venture for this is to be established together with the Thai energy company Energy Absolute. Energy Absolute is to hold 51 per cent of the joint venture […] More…

After the announcement of the electric car cooperation between VW and Audi with the Chinese manufacturers Xpeng and SAIC, Group CEO Oliver Blume gave more details. He spoke about the opportunities for the VW brand with the Xpeng cooperation, and what Audi plans to do with the SAIC technology. During a conference call with journalists […] More…

The Japanese technology company Asahi Kasei has started licensing design and manufacturing technology for lithium-ion capacitors (LiCs) as next-generation energy storage devices. The novel method enables LiCs to be manufactured cost-effectively using commonly available materials and equipment used to make lithium-ion batteries (LiBs). At the same time, it enables the development and production of LiCs […] More…

Safety problems with vehicles using hydrogen tanks from the Norwegian manufacturer Hexagon Purus have been reported in two unrelated incidents, one in the US and one in Europe. Hexagon Purus is investigating. The news website Hydrogen Insight issued a special report about the two cases this week, which it has since adjusted. Upon publication in […] More…

The Swedish company X Shore has announced on social media networks that it has started delivery of the first X Shore 1. To commemorate the social media launch the company also physically launched an X Shore 1 purely electrically. The Swedish company presented the X Shore 1 model in late summer 2022 for 99,000 without […] More…

The German state of Lower Saxony wants to take its diesel trains completely off the rails by 2037 and replace them with battery-powered trains. A total of 102 new multiple-unit trains are to gradually be acquired from 2029. The tender for the vehicles will be released this year. The battery trains can travel on lines […] More…

In Spain, the public transport provider Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) will soon put out tenders for procuring 36 new hydrogen and 23 battery buses. TMB wants to increase locally emission-free buses in its fleet to 25 per cent by 2024. For the upcoming tenders, TMB says it has secured around 21 million euros from […] More…

A fire broke out on the car freighter ‘Fremantle Highway’ off the Dutch coast, killing one person and injuring several others. The freighter had 2,857 cars on board, 25 of them electric. While various media reports have claimed that the fire is said to have started from an electric car, there is no mention of […] More…

The Volkswagen brand has concluded a technological framework agreement for China on a long-term cooperation with the Chinese electric car startup Xpeng. The Wolfsburg-based company is also taking a stake in Xpeng, and the Audi deal with SAIC was also confirmed by the Group. With the new collaboration with Xpeng, Volkswagen wants to further advance […] More…

In Europe, Mer Germany and Mer Solutions have merged under the Mer Germany GmbH brand. In parallel, the Group is establishing Mer Austria GmbH for business in Austria. In both cases, the company intends to drive the expansion of charging infrastructure in the respective countries. In Germany until now, Mer Solutions was responsible for non-public […] More…

Porsche CEO Oliver Blume has confirmed plans for a large-scale battery cell factory. But according to further statements from the Porsche board, the carmaker does not seem to favour North America over Germany as a location. As the German publication Automobilwoche writes, Blume and his Porsche CFO Lutz Meschke are said to have substantiated the […] More…

Gridserve is borrowing more than half a billion pounds from various banks to accelerate the modernisation and expansion of its UK electric vehicle charging network. This largest debt raise for a privately-owned chargepoint operator (CPO) to date. Gridserve plans to use the fresh capital to build more than 500 new charging sites. These are to […] More…

Porsche is taking its first steps towards building its own charging network in Germany. In Bingen am Rhein, the carmaker has now commissioned a pilot location with a “brand-appropriate charging experience”. There are a few 300 kW fast chargers on site, as well as AC charging points and a dedicated lounge. The exclusive ‘Porsche Charging […] More…