Imperial Oil Limited—Canada’s largest petroleum refiner, a major producer of crude oil, a key petrochemical producer and a leading fuels marketer—and E3 Lithium are collaborating to advance a direct-lithium-extraction pilot in Alberta, exploring the redevelopment of an historic oil field into a potential new leading source of lithium for Canada’s... Read more →

Umicore and Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd have agreed to develop jointly high-performance catholyte materials for solid-state batteries, combining their respective expertise in cathode active materials (CAM) and solid electrolytes, and aiming to provide the technological breakthrough to extend the driving range and thereby propel e-mobility. Catholytes combine cathode active materials... Read more →

CATL launched Qilin, the third generation of its CTP (cell-to-pack) technology. With a record-breaking volume utilization efficiency of 72% and an energy density of up to 255 Wh/kg, it achieves the highest integration level worldwide so far, capable of delivering a range of more than 1,000 km. With the same... Read more →

CATL recently officially launched its EVOGO battery swap services in Hefei, capital of east China’s Anhui Province, making it the second EVOGO city in the country. CATL first launched the swap service in April in Xiamen, in southeast China’s Fujian Province. Three battery swap stations have started operation in Hefei... Read more →

At a recent digital event, Geely’s Lynk & Co launched its E-Motive Hybrid technologies. Developed based on the NordThor Intelligent Hybrid platform (earlier post), these new technologies will help Lynk & Co offer better mobility, better performance, better sustainability and better intelligence. Lynk & Co’s current available hybrids have yet... Read more →

SABIC, a global leader in the chemical industry, has introduced NORYL NHP8000VT3 resin, a product well-suited for insulation film used in electric vehicle (EV) battery modules to help improve protection against short circuits and fire propagation. This high-performance, polyphenylene ether (PPO)-based resin is engineered with patented technologies to help meet... Read more →

Toyota Motor North America has embarked on a mission to create a sustainable, closed-loop battery ecosystem for its electrified powertrains. This focuses not only on the collection, testing and recycling of batteries into raw materials to create a sustainable supply chain, but also aims to develop second-life opportunities for remanufactured... Read more →

Leclanché SA has completed development of a third-generation marine battery system designed to support the needs of ship builders in producing 100% electric and hybrid marine vessels. Called the Navius MRS-3 (Marine Rack System), the new system improves upon Leclanché’s MRS-2 which is already powering a broad range of ferries,... Read more →

Renault Group and Minth Group, a leading global automotive supplier, signed a memorandum of understanding for the creation of a France-based joint venture to produce battery casings. The joint venture will locate this high-tech activity at the Ruitz plant in Renault ElectriCity and will supply ElectriCity Douai and Maubeuge plants.... Read more →

BASF will build a commercial-scale battery recycling black mass plant in Schwarzheide, Germany. The plant will have an annual processing capacity of 15,000 tons of EV batteries and production scrap. This investment strengthens BASF’s cathode active materials (CAM) production and recycling hub in Schwarzheide. The site is an ideal location... Read more →

Researchers at Beijing University of Technology have developed a thin free-standing composite solid electrolyte (CSE) film for solid-state lithium metal batteries. The film offers high ionic conductivity (2.76×10-4 S/cm at 25 °C) and wide electrochemical stability window (4.8 V vs. Li+/Li). In an open-access paper published in the RSC journal... Read more →

Researchers at Texas A&M University and ExxonMobil are developing a method to reprocess petroleum coke—a byproduct of refining crude oil—into graphene, using a chemical process called electrochemical exfoliation. This open-access study was published in NPJ 2D Materials and Applications. Simplified schematic of refinery operations and products: there is a need... Read more →

Newly created Basquevolt, the Basque solid-state battery initiative, will begin production of battery cells in 2027 with the aim of reaching 10GWh capacity. Basquevolt founding shareholders include the Basque Government, through the venture capital fund Ezten, Iberdrola, CIE Automotive, Enagás, EIT InnoEnergy and CIC energiGUNE. Basquevolt is supported by an... Read more →

Canada-based Nouveau Monde Graphite (NMG) is commissioning its new anode material coating line with a nameplate capacity of 2,000 tonnes per annum “tpa). Completing the Company’s integrated anode material production, from ore to battery material, the coating module was built over H1-2022 to complement NMG’s portfolio of advanced materials. The... Read more →

In its mission to support and secure an attractive and sustainable circular business model for batteries, Volvo Energy is investing approximately SEK 50 million (US$4.9 million) for a 10% stake in the UK-based second-life battery energy storage specialist Connected Energy. The investment came as part of a £15-million (US$18.4-million) round.... Read more →

Meta Materials Inc., a developer of high-performance functional materials and nanocomposites, signed a definitive agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets and intellectual property, including 67 issued and 22 pending patents, of Optodot Corporation for an aggregate of $48.5 million, comprising $3.5 million in cash and $45 million of... Read more →

AIMPLAS, the Plastics Technology Center, is working with the SMART5G Project on a new battery-swapping system for electric vehicles. The focus of the SMART5G Project, which is partly funded by Spain’s State Research Agency (AEI), is the design and development of a battery charging and replacement station for lightweight mobility.... Read more →

BASF Shanshan Battery Materials Co., Ltd. (BSBM), a BASF majority-owned company in China (BASF 51%; Shanshan 49%), is expanding its battery materials capacity in Changsha, Hunan Province, and Shuizuishan, Ningxia Province, to meet the fast-growing local and global demands of the electric vehicle (EV) industry. The expansion project will enable... Read more →

FREYR Battery entered into a reservation agreement with Changzhou Senior New Energy Materials Co., Ltd. and Senior Material (Europe) AB to supply battery materials for its Customer Qualification Plant (“CQP”), currently under construction in Mo i Rana, Norway, as well as for the company’s planned combined Gigafactory 1 & 2.... Read more →

NEO Battery Materials signed a Collaboration Agreement (CA) with Applied Carbon Nano Technology Ltd. (ACN) to advance NEO’s pending patent related to carbon nanotube (CNT) coating technology for silicon anode materials. NEO and ACN will collaborate to expand mutual business opportunities in the electric vehicle (EV) industry including the CNT... Read more →

OCSiAl, the world’s largest manufacturer of graphene nanotubes (earlier post), is launching a graphene nanotube synthesis facility near Belgrade, Serbia, in the first half of 2023. The synthesis facility will become the core of the graphene nanotube industrial hub and will be accompanied by production lines of nanotube concentrates for... Read more →

Albemarle Corporation, one of the largest lithium producers in the world and present in Chile for more than 40 years, inaugurated its third chemical conversion plant, La Negra III/IV, in Antofagasta, Chile, as one of the most modern chemical conversion plants in Latin America. With new technology, the plant is... Read more →

Op-ed by Brent Wilson, CEO of Galvanic Energy. The war over global dominance of the electric vehicle battery industry seems like it ended before it really got started. China is walking away as the winner and the US might as well wave the white flag because it may never catch... Read more →

Enovix Corporation, a designer and manufacturer of next-generation 3D Silicon Lithium-ion batteries (earlier post), demonstrated the ability of its 0.27 Ah EV test cells to charge from 0-80% state-of-charge in as little as 5.2 minutes and achieve a greater than 98% charge capacity in less than 10 minutes. Enovix has... Read more →

A team from MIT has developed a new approach to fabricating oxide-based solid-state electrolytes that are comparable in thickness to the polymer separators found in current Li-ion batteries without sintering: sequential decomposition synthesis (SDS). An open-access paper describing the approach and its application to processing Li garnets is published in... Read more →

In response to a Goldman Sachs research note which suggested that the lithium market will pivot to a prolonged phase of surplus this year, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence took the unusual step (for the analytics firm) of outlining the reasons why it believes that call on lithium is incorrect. The industry... Read more →

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is developing best practices with respect to the collection of batteries to be recycled, as well as establishing a program to promote battery recycling through the development of voluntary labeling guidelines for batteries and communication materials for battery producers and consumers as directed by... Read more →

Van Hool, the Belgian manufacturer of buses, coaches and industrial vehicles, presented its first edition of a completely new range of 100% zero emission buses on the first day of Euro Mobility Expo 2022, an international trade show for public transport. The Van Hool A12 Battery Electric is the first... Read more →

Battery materials company Nano One and Rio Tinto have agreed to enter into a strategic partnership, with Rio Tinto providing iron and lithium products, collaboration and a US$10-million investment into Nano One. This partnership and funding will accelerate Nano One’s multi-cathode (multi-CAM) commercialization strategy and support cathode active materials (CAM)... Read more →

The HVBatCycle research consortium—a partnership of industrial and scientific communities—has the goal of keeping cathode metals, electrolyte and graphite permanently in a closed material cycle (closed loop). Under the leadership of the Volkswagen Group, TANIOBIS GmbH, J. Schmalz GmbH and Viscom AG are working together with researchers from RWTH Aachen... Read more →

To improve the performance of Li-ion batteries in the extreme cold, researchers from Tianjin University, Beijing Jiaotong University, Karlsruhe Institue of Technology and other colleagues replaced the traditional graphite anode in a lithium-ion battery with a carbon-based anode material (O-DF) strategically synthesized to construct the Riemannian surface with a positive... Read more →

Volkswagen of America (VWoA) opened its Battery Engineering Lab (BEL) in Chattanooga, to test and optimize batteries for all electric vehicles in the American marketplace. By developing critical battery expertise in-house, the $22-million, 32,000 square feet facility will enable Volkswagen to gain a competitive edge in the push to electric... Read more →

BASF has extended its series of Licity anode binders for Li-ion battery manufacturing. The second-generation styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) binder Licity 2698 X F facilitates the use of silicon contents exceeding 20%. The binder is especially suitable for SiOx and Si-rich anodes. In addition to the established properties of the Licity... Read more →

NEO Battery Materials Ltd. signed a strategic memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Automobile & PCB establishing strategic investment and cooperation between NEO and A&P to advance the Korean mass production facility of NEO’s silicon anode materials for electric vehicle (EV) lithium-ion batteries. NEO Battery Materials Ltd. is a Vancouver-based company... Read more →

Researchers at Tohoku University have devised a means to stabilize lithium or sodium depositions in rechargeable batteries, helping keep their metallic structure intact. The discovery prevents potential battery degradation and short circuiting, and paves the way for higher energy-density metal-anode batteries. An open-access paper on the work appears in the... Read more →

Solid Power, a developer of all-solid-state battery cells for electric vehicles, has completed installation of its pilot production line—dubbed the “EV cell pilot line”—which is designed to produce EV-scale solid-state cells. Solid Power intends to produce Silicon EV Cells for internal testing before delivering cells to its automotive partners BMW... Read more →

Argonne National Laboratory will host a public webinar on the challenges of recycling Li-ion batteries and possible solutions. Qiang Dai, sustainability analyst at Argonne, will show how anyone can measure the costs of recycling lithium-ion batteries and how the process affects the environment with Argonne’s free EverBatt tool. EverBatt is... Read more →

Manz AG, a globally active high-tech engineering company with a comprehensive technology portfolio, is acquiring a 40% stake in CUSTOMCELLS Tübingen GmbH and further expanding the cooperation already in place for several years. The CUSTOMCELLS Group is developing and manufacturing advanced lithium-ion battery cells. The group recently gained international recognition... Read more →

Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Group (MCHG) will increase the production capacity of natural graphite anode material from 2,000 tons/year to 12,000 tons/year at its Chinese subsidiary Qingdao Anode Kasei and affiliated company Qingdao Lingda Kasei. The production line is scheduled to start operation in the first half of fiscal 2023. MCHG... Read more →

Skeleton Technologies and Class8 Energy, a Canadian equipment distributor, have signed a €11.6-million contract for supercapacitors modules for the North American trucking and retail industry. Through this agreement, Skeleton’s products will be distributed to the fast-growing North American heavy vehicles market. As a first concrete example of this new cooperation,... Read more →

LG Chem will establish a recycling and precursor joint venture with KEMCO, a subsidiary of Korea Zinc Co., Ltd., to strengthen its battery material value chain. Precursors in this application context are raw material for cathodes manufactured by combining nickel, cobalt, manganese, aluminum, etc.; prescursors account for approximately 70% of... Read more →

LG Chem is forming a cathode material production joint venture with Tianjin B&M Science and Technology (B&M), a subsidiary of China’s Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt (Huayou Cobalt) that specializes in cathode materials. The establishment of the joint venture further cements our vertical integration system with key raw materials to produce affordable,... Read more →

Components for the production of batteries at Audi’s Brussels plant will no longer be delivered by truck from Hungary, but by rail with DB Cargo. The move will significantly reduce Audi’s carbon emissions and also save money. The switch in means of delivery between Hungary and Brussels, which was started... Read more →

Renesas Electronics Corporation introduced an AUTOSAR-compliant complex device driver (CDD) software module for designers of automotive battery management systems (BMS) in electric vehicles (EVs). The new software pairs with Renesas’ ISL78714 Li-Ion battery management IC to speed design and optimize performance of next-generation systems. The CDD software is designed to... Read more →

Stellantis and LG Energy Solution announced NextStar Energy Inc. as the official name of its battery joint-venture company. (Earlier post.) Danies Lee has been appointed chief executive officer (CEO) of the new company. NextStar Energy will be Canada’s first large-scale lithium-ion battery production plant. Stellantis and LG Energy Solution committed... Read more →

Stellantis N.V. and Controlled Thermal Resources Ltd. (CTR) signed a binding offtake agreement for CTR to supply battery-grade lithium hydroxide for use in Stellantis’ North America electrified vehicle production. CTR’s Hell’s Kitchen Project in California’s Imperial County (earlier post) will recover lithium from geothermal brines using renewable energy and steam... Read more →

Toyota Motor is introducing the O-Uchi Kyuden System, a home storage battery system based on its electrified vehicle battery technology. Pre-orders for the system have started, and sales in Japan will begin in August through home builders and general construction companies. The O-Uchi Kyuden System uses electrified vehicle battery technology... Read more →

A team of researchers led by chemists at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory has shown that using an appropriate amount of lithium difluorophosphate in a common commercial electrolyte enables stable cycling of nickel-rich layered cathode materials with an ultra-high cut-off voltage of 4.8 V. A paper on... Read more →

Renault Group and Managem Group, a Moroccan player in the mining and hydrometallurgy sector, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) aimed at securing the supply of low-carbon and responsible cobalt sulfate for electric batteries. Under the terms of the agreement, Managem Group will supply 5,000 tonnes of cobalt sulfate per... Read more →

Nano One Materials and BASF SE (BASF) have signed a joint development agreement (JDA) under which the companies will co-develop a process with reduced by-products for commercial production of next-generation cathode active materials (CAM), based on BASF’s HED-family of advanced CAM and using Nano One’s patented One-Pot process and metal... Read more →