Oshkosh Defense, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oshkosh Corporation, unveiled the first silent drive hybrid-electric Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV), the eJLTV. The eJLTV offers the US Army and US Marine Corps the same level of performance and protection as the base JLTV with the addition of silent drive, extended silent... Read more →

Toyota has unveiled the all-new third-generation 2023 Sequoia full-size SUV. All 2023 Sequoias will feature the powerful twin-turbo V6 hybrid i-FORCE MAX powertrain. First unveiled on Tundra, this exceptional hybrid produces 437 horsepower and 583 lb.-ft. of torque. (Earlier post.) 2023 Toyota Sequoia Limited The powertrain features a motor generator... Read more →

Steelmaker ArcelorMittal has made a US$5-million investment in H2Pro through its XCarb innovation fund, bringing the fund’s total investment commitments to US$180 million since its launch in March 2021. The investment is part of a US$75-million Series B fundraise by H2Pro, with other investors including Temasek, Horizons Ventures, Breakthrough Energy... Read more →

Volvo Trucks has introduced a new, patented safety feature for electric trucks: Active Grip Control. The new technology significantly improves stability, acceleration and braking in slippery conditions. Due to the fast response of the electric motors, the force generated between the wheels and the road can be controlled in an... Read more →

Comau, a member of Stellantis, has developed and deployed an automated e-drive assembly line for Geely Automobile Holdings at its Geely Veremt plant in Ningbo (China), for the end-to-end assembly of the electric motor, gearbox and inverter. Designed in close collaboration with the Geely team, the complete line uses a... Read more →

Bosch and the Volkswagen Group subsidiary Cariad have agreed to form an extensive partnership to accelerate the introduction of automated driving functions across all vehicle classes. The companies want to make partially and highly automated driving suitable for volume production, and thus available to the broad mass of consumers. For... Read more →

The US Department of Commerce released the results from the Risks in the Semiconductor Supply Chain Request for Information (RFI) issued in Sept. 2021. Key findings from the report provided data-driven information about the depths of the semiconductor shortage. The RFI showed that median inventory held by chips consumers (including... Read more →

Kia America announced that pricing for the 2022 EV6, the brand’s first dedicated all-electric model, will start at $40,900, with a net price of $33,400 after the $7,500 federal electric vehicle tax credit. The EV6 offers a choice of two battery packs: 58.0 kWh and 77.4 kWh. The EV6 with... Read more →

General Motors will invest more than $7 billion in four Michigan manufacturing sites, significantly increasing battery cell and electric truck manufacturing capacity. This is the single largest investment announcement in GM history. The investment includes construction of a new Ultium Cells battery cell plant in Lansing with LG and the... Read more →

Canada-based Lithion Recycling closed a first tranche of Series A equity with a strategic group of investors led by IMM Investment Global Limited and supported by Fondaction and its managed fund, the LCC Fund. The size of the first round is expected to reach up to C$125 million (US$99 million).... Read more →

Researchers from Lehigh University, in collaboration with colleagues from the East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST), have developed an induced activation strategy to enhance the performance of the ternary Cu/Zu/AL2O3 catalyst towards the methanol steam reforming (MSR) reaction (used as a model reaction). Cu/Zu/AL2O3 is an important industrial... Read more →

Ørsted and Liquid Wind AB have reached an agreement under which Ørsted will acquire a 45% ownership share of Liquid Wind AB’s FlagshipONE e-methanol project. (Earlier post.) FlagshipONE is a late-stage development project and could become the world’s first large-scale sustainable e-methanol project. Liquid Wind AB plans to establish a... Read more →

25 The technology group Wärtsilä has received its first order for newbuild methanol-fueled engines. A new Offshore Wind Installation Vessel (WIV) being built for Dutch contracting company Van Oord at Yantai CIMC Raffles shipyard in China will be powered by five Wärtsilä 32 engines capable of operating with methanol. A... Read more →

Wisk, a leading Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) company and developer of the first all-electric, self-flying air taxi in the US, has secured $450 million in funding from The Boeing Company, making it one of the most well-funded AAM companies in the world. Combined with previous funding, this investment reinforces Wisk’s... Read more →

Toshiba Electronics Europe GmbH has launched a new normally open (NO) 1-Form-A photorelay that is intended for use in a multitude of battery- and hybrid-electric vehicle applications including within the battery management system (BMS), ground fault detection and identifying faults with mechanical relays. The new TLX9160T consists of an infrared... Read more →

Benevelli, an Italy-based producer of transaxles, wheel drives and electric motors, has launched the new SMAC Serie 270, a line of IPM (interior permanent magnet) electric motors systems ideal for off-highway and eMobility vehicles. IPM motors feature a rotor embedded with permanent magnets. Compared with the SPM (surface permanent magnet),... Read more →

Rio Tinto, Turquoise Hill Resources (TRQ) and the Government of Mongolia have reached an agreement that will move the Oyu Tolgoi (OT) copper mine project (earlier post) forward, resetting the relationship between the partners and increasing the value the project delivers for Mongolia. As a result, the OT Board, comprised... Read more →

InCharge Energy, a provider of turnkey electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions for commercial fleets, introduced its latest charging hardware offering: the ICE-180. This all-in-one DC Fast Charger is compatible with all CCS and CHAdeMO EVs and is suited for auto dealers, commercial fleet charging and parking applications where higher-power DC... Read more →

Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn), a global leader in smart manufacturing, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indonesian Ministry of Investment/BKPM, IBC, Indika, and Gogoro to develop jointly a battery manufacturing and electric vehicle ecosystem in Indonesia. Under the MoU, Foxconn together with Gogoro (a Taiwanese company that... Read more →

ROUSH CleanTech is the first original equipment manufacturer to receive California Air Resources Board’s (CARB’s) 0.02 grams per brake horsepower-hour certification for 2022 model year vehicles. The optional ultra-low CARB certification is 90% cleaner than current emissions standards for nitrogen oxides. The new engine certification covers ROUSH CleanTech Gen 5... Read more →

Autonomous driving technology company Pony.ai has introduced its 6th generation autonomous driving (AD) system, with leading-edge sensors, NVIDIA DRIVE computing platform solutions, and styling and design features for L4 automotive-grade mass production fleets. The first model equipped with this system, Toyota S-AM, a seven-seat hybrid electric platform for autonomous mobility... Read more →

Lightning eMotors has been named as the powertrain provider for an all-electric motorhome concept—the e-RV—under development by Winnebago Industries’ Advanced Technology Group (ATG). The electric powertrain system for the e-RV was developed, integrated, and installed by Lightning eMotors. We agree with Winnebago Industries’ view that there is a significant opportunity... Read more →

Vulcan Energy Resources Limited, the company aiming to become the world’s first integrated lithium and renewable energy producer with a net zero carbon footprint (earlier post), has been granted research permit in Italy for the Cesano area located 20 km NNW of Rome. Vulcan’s current Zero Carbon Lithium Project aims... Read more →

by Michael Sivak, Sivak Applied Research. In this analysis, I examined the relation between crude-oil production and crude-oil reserves in the world overall and in the United States alone. The variable of interest was the amount of crude oil produced as a percentage of proved reserves of crude oil. (This... Read more →

Researchers at Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) and the NIMS-SoftBank Advanced Technologies Development Center have developed a lithium-air battery with an energy density of more than 500 Wh/kg—significantly higher than currently lithium ion batteries. The research team then confirmed that this battery can be charged and discharged at... Read more →

Classification Society ClassNK has issued an Approval in Principle (AiP) for the design of an ammonia-fueled Panamax bulk carrier developed by Planning and Design Center for Greener Ships (GSC). GSC was formed in 2020 by nine shipbuilders and ClassNK Ammonia is expected to be used as decarbonized fuel for ships... Read more →

Parallel Systems, a company founded by former SpaceX engineers to reimagine the railroad system, has raised $49.55 million in Series A funds to build autonomous battery-electric rail vehicles that move freight. The round is led by Anthos Capital, and includes investments from Congruent Ventures, Riot Ventures, Embark Ventures, and others.... Read more →

Tel Aviv-based TriEye, a fabless semiconductor company that developed the first CMOS-based Short-Wave Infrared (SWIR) sensing solution, is collaborating with Tier 1 automotive supplier Hitachi Astemo to enhance the capabilities of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) for adverse weather and low-light conditions by accelerating the commercialization of TriEye technology. TriEye’s... Read more →

After declining in 2020, the combined production of US fossil fuels (including natural gas, crude oil, and coal) increased by 2% in 2021 to 77.14 quadrillion British thermal units. Based on forecasts in its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects US fossil fuel production... Read more →

Fermata Energy, a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technology services provider, recently raised $40 million to accelerate the company’s growth with investment from new partners, including funds managed by global investment firm Carlyle and Verizon Ventures. The company’s V2X software technology aims to transform electric vehicles into energy-storage assets, making EV ownership more... Read more →