Cepsa—the Spain-based multinational oil and gas company—will invest more than €3 billion to establish the Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley, creating the largest green hydrogen hub in Europe in southern Spain. The project, part of Cepsa’s 2030 strategy Positive Motion, will contribute to Europe’s energy security and independence, in line with... Read more →

ABT e-Line GmbH, a subsidiary of the ABT Group that specializes in alternative drives, has decided to start series development of hydrogen fuel cell vans based on the reception of its demonstrator vehicles. The company gained experience in the integration of fuel cell drives in two large Tier 1 projects... Read more →

Building on its commitment to grow an all-electric vehicle range, Ford has invested a further £125 million in its Halewood Plant, on Merseyside in the UK—increasing capacity by 70%—plus £24 million in the supporting E:PRiME product development center. The new funding takes total investment in enabling Halewood’s transformation to an... Read more →

In Q3 2022, more than 77,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) were deployed onto roads in the cells of newly-sold passenger PHEVs and BEVs globally—70% more than was deployed the same period the year prior, according to data from Adamas Intelligence. In the Asia Pacific region, LCE deployment jumped... Read more →

Constellium SE is leading a new consortium of automakers and suppliers to develop lower carbon, lower cost aluminum extrusion alloys. Sponsored by a grant from the UK’s Advanced Propulsion Center (APC), the £10-million (US$12.3-million) CirConAl (Circular and Constant aluminum) project aims to maximize the use of post-consumer scrap in a... Read more →

Canoo delivered its new Light Tactical Vehicle (LTV) to the United States Army for Analysis & Demonstration in fulfillment of the $67,500 contract awarded in July 2022. The Army is looking for vehicles—battery-electric or series-hybrid—that can reduce reliance on fossil fuels both in the operational and garrison environments. The vehicle... Read more →

Glasgow-based Hydrogen Vehicle Systems (HVS) will receive a £15-million (US$17.8-million) grant from the UK Government’s Advanced Propulsion Center to support the commercialization of a hydrogen fuel cell-powered heavy-duty truck. HVS is developing the UK’s first indigenous, clean-sheet, hydrogen fuel-cell HGV (Heavy Goods Vehicle). APC’s funding, which is aimed at supporting... Read more →

UK-based Electrified Automation has been awarded £6 million (US$7.4 million) in government funding to further develop its innovative process for manufacturing electric motors that are more cost-competitive, powerful and efficient than many of the products currently available in the marketplace. The grant was awarded through the Advanced Propulsion Center (APC)... Read more →

Ford electric vehicles sales in the US were up 103% for November 2022 compared to year ago, making Ford the US’ second best-selling brand and manufacturer of electric vehicles behind Tesla. EV sales for the month were 6,255 units, or 4.3% of total vehicle sales for the month. The US’... Read more →

Volvo Cars reported global sales of 59,154 cars in November, up 12.0% compared with the same month last year. Overall underlying demand for the company’s cars continues to remain robust, especially for its Recharge range of pure electric and plug-in hybrid cars. Sales of Recharge units were up 44.2% year-on-year.... Read more →

Volkswagen will unveil the new ID.3 to the public this coming spring. To date, more than half a million ID. models—built on the basis of the modular electric drive matrix (MEB)—have been delivered to customers around the world. Currently, the ID.3 is produced at the Zwickau and Dresden plants in... Read more →

EPRI, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Southern Company Research and Development, and Deep Isolation recently were recently awarded $2.8 million from by the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) for a joint nuclear research and development project focused on nuclear fuel management options to... Read more →

Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume and the Canadian Minister for Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, signed an Addendum to the non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of August this year (earlier post) to identify suitable sites for a cell factory in Canada. The two parties will continue their cooperation in the... Read more →

A consortium led by Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd (TMUK) will receive funding from UK Government through the Advanced Propulsion Center (APC) for the development of a hydrogen fuel cell-powered Hilux pickup. HiluxH2 In collaboration with Ricardo, ETL, D2H and Thatcham Research, Toyota will adopt second-generation Toyota fuel cell components... Read more →

The BMW Group is commencing production of its BMW iX5 Hydrogen model. Manufacture of the small-series hydrogen-powered vehicle is taking place in the pilot plant at its Munich Research and Innovation Centre (FIZ). The first Sports Activity Vehicle (SAV) featuring hydrogen fuel cell technology has already completed a program of... Read more →

With the continued global turmoil experienced over the past few years, the prices of almost everything are rising. This has been especially true for the rare earth materials used in the manufacturing of electric motors for electric vehicles (EVs). The price of neodymium has remained fairly constant from 2013-2020, but... Read more →

Mercedes-Benz Vans showed the Concept EQT Marco Polo—a new, fully electric micro camper van based on the EQT, which is equipped with innovations for the segment. The series version is expected to be presented in the second half of 2023. The Mercedes-Benz EQT (power consumption combined (WLTP): 18.99 kWh/100 km),... Read more →

DS PENSKE presented its DS E-TENSE FE23 car ahead of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season nine official test, which will take place at Valencia (Spain) between 13-16 December. Lighter, more efficient and more powerful, the third generation 100% electric single-seater has been developed by the competition division... Read more →

NuScale Power, along with Shell Global Solutions (Shell) and industry participants will develop and assess a concept for an economically optimized Integrated Energy System (IES) for hydrogen production using electricity and process heat from a NuScale VOYGR small modular reactor (SMR) power plant. The project entitled, “Development and Demonstration of... Read more →

Germany’s Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) has approved the Mercedes-Benz and Bosch highly automated parking system for use in the P6 parking garage run by APCOA at Stuttgart Airport. This makes it the world’s first highly automated driverless parking function (SAE Level 4) officially to be approved for commercial use.... Read more →

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a multipart proposal for required volumes of biofuel under the Renewable FUel Standard (RFS) for the next one to three years and on a series of modifications to the program. The agency is seeking public input on the proposal to help shape the... Read more →

The Blue Ribbon Commission on Lithium Extraction in California (Lithium Valley Commission) submitted its report of findings and recommendations to the state Legislature. The report recommends accelerating transmission planning; improving permitting; and securing funding for infrastructure investments and economic development incentives to support industry growth and job training. Established by... Read more →

Through its venture capital fund BMW i Ventures, the BMW Group has taken a stake in Colorado-based Jetti Resources. Founded in 2014, Jetti Resources has developed a pioneering process for copper extraction that utilizes previously unused ore from existing copper mines. BMW’s goal is to foster responsible and resource-conserving copper... Read more →

Honeywell is expanding its strategic alliance with Nexceris, developer of Li-ion Tamer lithium-ion gas detection solutions, to help make electric vehicles (EVs) safer. Honeywell and Nexceris will co-develop sensor-based solutions to help prevent conditions leading to thermal runaway in EV batteries. Global sales of EVs doubled in 2021 from the... Read more →

KULR Technology Group has achieved operational readiness for its Fractional Thermal Runaway Calorimeter (FTRC) within its suite of battery safety and thermal management solutions after finalizing a commercial licensing agreement with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the agency’s patent-pending FTRC solution. Originally developed by NASA and refined... Read more →

Airbus is developing a hydrogen-powered fuel cell engine. The propulsion system is being considered as one of the potential solutions to equip its zero-emission aircraft that will enter service by 2035. Airbus will start ground and flight testing this fuel cell engine architecture onboard its ZEROe demonstrator aircraft towards the... Read more →

Airbus and Renault Group signed a research and development agreement which aims at enhancing transversalities and synergies to accelerate both companies’ electrification roadmaps, improving their respective range of products. This partnership will help Airbus mature technologies associated with future hybrid-electric aircraft. As part of this partnership, Airbus’ and Renault Group’s... Read more →

Researchers from Renmin University and Tsinghua University in China have developed a novel shape-memorized current collector (SMCC), which can successfully brake battery thermal runaway at the battery internal overheating status. Unlike traditional current collectors made of commercial copper foils, SMCC is made of a micropatterned shape memory micron-sized film with... Read more →

In November, Tesla opened its EV charging connector design—called the North American Charging Standard (NACS)—to charging network operators and vehicle manufacturers. (Earlier post.) Now, the Charging Interface Initiative (CharIN e.V.) and its CharIN North America Chapter (operating as CharIN Inc.), issued a response. CharIN is the largest global association focused... Read more →

Honda will produce an all-new hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) based on the recently launched, all-new Honda CR-V starting in 2024 at its Performance Manufacturing Center (PMC) in Marysville, Ohio. This new zero-emissions vehicle will contribute to Honda’s previously announced goal to make battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and FCEVs... Read more →