The car rental company Hertz will be phasing out even more electric cars this year than previously planned. As Hertz writes in a statement on its quarterly figures, a total of 30,000 electric cars are to be sold in 2024 – 10,000 more than announced in January. Read more…

The Northern Irish bus manufacturer Wrightbus has received an order to supply 46 hydrogen buses to Germany. The order comes from public transport provider Cottbusverkehr and includes eleven H2 buses for operation in Cottbus and a further 35 for the subsidiary Spree-Neiße-Cottbusverkehr. Read more…

The German-Australian lithium producer Vulcan Energy is bringing the Swiss technology group ABB on board as a partner. Vulcan hopes that this will enable it to optimize its production processes in its project to extract lithium from the Upper Rhine Valley. Read more…

The South Korean companies LG Energy Solution and Posco have decided to reduce their investments in the battery sector in order to better respond to the declining demand for electric vehicles. The investments are to be postponed for the time being. Read more…

Honda officially announced that it will set up an EV supply system in Ontario, Canada. That includes building a production facility for electric cars, one for batteries, and two more battery plants with partners Asahi Kasei and Posco. Read more…

Toyota is increasing its investments in the production of electric cars and batteries in North America. The Japanese company will invest $1.4 billion in its car plant in Princeton, Indiana, to build a new electric model and assemble battery packs. Read more…

The Ji Yue car brand from Geely and Baidu is presenting its second model after the Ji Yue 01 electric SUV. It bears the model name Ji Yue 07 and is a sporty electric sedan with a drag coefficient of 0.198. The Ji Yue 07 is due to be launched on the Chinese market this year. Read more…

At Auto China in Beijing, CATL has presented its new Shenxing Plus LFP battery designed to give electric cars a range of more than 1,000 kilometres. The battery with durable lithium iron phosphate cells is also said to be very quick to charge. Read more…

Powertrain supplier Vitesco Technologies and Sanden, a provider of thermal management technologies for the automotive industry, have joined forces to develop an integrated thermal management system for battery electric vehicles. Read more…

The US State of Washington has announced a new rebate program to help more consumers choose electric vehicles. The $45-million state programme will offer rebates to residents purchasing or leasing an EV from August. Read more…

The Charx Connect Universal CCS vehicle charging sockets from Phoenix Contact will now also enable high-power charging with 375 kW continuously. According to the electrical engineering specialist, this applies to both the European and North American versions. Read more…

Daimler Buses is changing its battery supplier to battery system manufacturer BMZ Poland. The two companies have agreed on a strategic partnership for the development and supply of the next generation of electric bus batteries. Daimler Buses customers can expect the new “NMC4” batteries from the “middle of the decade”. Read more…

The US government has launched a grant scheme called the ‘Clean Heavy-Duty Vehicles Grant Program’, amounting to almost one billion dollars for the transition off polluting fuels for heavy-duty vehicles and school buses. The new grant program will support the procurement and operation of these vehicles, as well as the necessary charging infrastructure and operator training. Read more…

The Japanese technology group Asahi Kasei has unveiled plans to build a plant for lithium-ion battery separators in Canada. The plant is to be built in Ontario and start production in 2027. Japanese car manufacturer Honda is to become an important partner for the plant. Read more…

The Norwegian electricity provider Tibber is launching a new energy product called Grid Rewards in the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway. Grid Rewards is designed to enable customers to earn money by connecting their electric cars when they reduce the load on the grids through their controllable electricity consumption. Read more…

Together with joint venture partner Dongfeng, Nissan is presenting four vehicle concepts tailored to the Chinese market at the Beijing Motor Show, including two purely electric and two plug-in hybrids. They should soon lead to series production versions: The first new electric Nissan has been announced in China for the second half of 2024. Read more…

Siemens has revealed a functional and tested prototype for megawatt charging (MCS) for trucks called the Sicharge megawatt charging system. Read more…

At its China Capital Markets Day in Beijing, the German company presented its strategy update for the Chinese market. The Wolfsburg-based company’s main aim is to strengthen its technological expertise and reduce costs in the rapidly growing market. Read more…

Geely’s electric car brand Zeekr has unveiled the new SEA-M architecture and the first model based on it: the Zeekr Mix. The SEA-M is derived from Geely’s well-known Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) and is suitable for everything from passenger cars such as robotaxis to vans and commercial vehicles. Read more…

At Auto China in Beijing, Audi presented the first model from the new EV factory in Changchun, China. The Q6L e-tron is essentially the well-known electric SUV based on the PPE electric platform – only with a few China-specific adaptations. Read more…