Haldor Topsoe and Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum have formed a joint venture with the aim of delivering locally produced MK-151+ methanol synthesis catalysts to the Chinese market. The joint venture will secure fast delivery to local customers, who demand high-performance catalysts for energy-efficient methanol production. The mechanical strength of methanol synthesis... Read more →

Volvo Cars announced its autonomous driving (AD) software development subsidiary Zenseact has received a strategic investment by ECARX, a privately-owned Chinese provider of connected car technology. ECARX will take a 15% shareholding in Zenseact and make a strategic investment in the company’s continued development of leading and safe autonomous driving... Read more →

China-based self-driving startup AutoX unveiled its full Gen5 self-driving system this week. The autonomous driving platform, which is specifically designed for robotaxis, uses NVIDIA DRIVE automotive grade GPUs to reach up to 2,200 trillion operations per second (TOPS) of AI compute performance. In January, AutoX launched a commercial robotaxi system... Read more →

Air Liquide Houpu Hydrogen Equipment Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of Air Liquide Group, supplied and installed 8 hydrogen dispenser units (each with two fueling nozzles) for the Daxing hydrogen station, owned and operated by Beijing Hypower Energy Technology Ltd. With a capacity of 4.8 tonnes, this station can refuel 600... Read more →

The first phase of the traction battery production project of Sichuan Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL-SC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CATL, is now in operation. Since September 2019, CATL and the city government of Yibin have successively signed contracts for the CATL-SC traction battery phase I to phase VI projects,... Read more →

China-based Minmetals Group subsidiary Minmetals Salt Lake announced the successful testing of an improved direct lithium extraction process. The process, developed by Xi’an Lanshen New Material Technology, uses aluminum hydroxide as an adsorbent to separate lithium from other impurities. R&D investment totalled RMB44.8 million (US$7.0 million) and a 1kt-scale pilot... Read more →

Rheinmetall AG, the German technology group, and Tongji University in Shanghai have recently set up a joint lab to foster cooperation in new energy vehicle technology. The joint lab, which will focus primarily on research and innovation in fuel cells, forms part of an endowed chair at the School of... Read more →

BASF and Shanshan, a leading lithium-ion battery materials supplier serving both the e-mobility and the consumer electronics (CE) market, have agreed to form a BASF majority-owned joint venture (BASF: 51%; Shanshan: 49%) to produce cathode active materials (CAM) and precursors (PCAM) in China. Closing of the transaction is targeted for... Read more →

Israel-based StoreDot, a developer of extreme fast charging (XFC) battery technology for electric vehicles (EVs), announced a new framework agreement with its strategic battery manufacturing partner EVE Energy Co., Ltd (EVE) to support the commercialization of StoreDot’s silicon-dominant anode XFC FlashBattery for EVs. The first prototypes will be available for... Read more →

Baidu will open fully driverless robotaxi services to the public in Beijing starting tomorrow. This will be China’s first paid autonomous vehicle service where users can hail a robotaxi without a safety driver behind the steering wheel. The fully driverless Apollo Go Robotaxi service will first be launched in Beijing’s... Read more →

Loop Energy, a developer and manufacturer of hydrogen fuel cell-based solutions, has received and fulfilled an order for ten units of the company’s proprietary eFlow fuel cell modules from Beijing IN-Power for integration by Skywell New Energy Vehicles Group (Skywell) in Nanjing, China. The shipment marks the second phase of... Read more →

Volkswagen Group China has begun construction of an all-new MEB plant at Volkswagen Anhui. The third of the Group’s pure-electric vehicle manufacturing facilities in China, following completion of the Anting (SAIC VW) and Foshan (FAW-VW) plants, the Volkswagen Anhui plant will be powered by green energy from day one. Due... Read more →

The BMW iX electric SUV (earlier post) has its world premiere at the Auto Shanghai 2021 show. Market launch in China will get underway over the course of 2021. The BMW iX is first model in the brand’s line-up to feature the new Operating System 8 and the latest generation... Read more →

Volvo Cars and DiDi Autonomous Driving, the self-driving technology arm of Didi Chuxing, the world’s leading mobility technology platform, have signed a strategic collaboration agreement on autonomous vehicles for DiDi’s self-driving test fleet. Volvo Cars will provide DiDi with XC90 cars equipped with necessary backup systems for functions such as... Read more →

Volkswagen unveiled the third model in the ID. family, the ID.6, at the Auto Shanghai. The vehicle is the first model of the ID. family developed specifically for a single market. Two versions of the fully electric family SUV are available: The ID.6 CROZZ is being manufactured in the north... Read more →

The new Mercedes-Benz EQB is making its debut at Auto Shanghai 2021 this week. Following the EQA 250 (combined electrical consumption: 15.7 kWh/100 km) it is the second fully electric compact car from Mercedes-EQ. The market launch in China is scheduled for this year. After Europe, the international version of... Read more →

NIO and Sinopec unveiled the NIO Power Swap Station 2.0 at Sinopec’s Chaoying Station in Beijing. This is NIO’s inaugural second-generation battery swap station and also the first under the NIO-Sinopec partnership, representing the rollout of NIO Power Swap Station 2.0. (Earlier post.) As a smart battery swap system enabled... Read more →

Bosch and China-based premium commercial vehicle manufacturer Qingling Motors have established a joint venture in China: Bosch Hydrogen Powertrain Systems (Chongqing) Co. Ltd. The new company will develop, assemble and market fuel cell systems for the Chinese market. The goal is to pool the technology and market expertise of both... Read more →

China is positioning itself to dominate the global supply of copper, a material in high demand as the world transitions to alternative energy systems, according to experts from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. “If China’s dominance of rare earth element supplies is the global energy transition’s ‘elephant in... Read more →

China-based Great Wall Motors (GWM) released its hydrogen energy strategy. GWM says it will build an international supply chain ecology integrating hydrogen “production-storage-transportation-refueling-application”; break barriers on core technologies ;and connect the downstream industry chain, accelerating the commercial popularization of hydrogen energy. The hydrogen energy strategy of GWM covers both the... Read more →

China-based SANY, one of the largest construction equipment manufacturers in the world, is developing hydrogen fuel cell construction vehicles; two recent examples include a dump truck and a mixer truck, freshly rolled out of SANY’s intelligent flagship factory. The latter is the first hydrogen-powered mixer truck in the world. According... Read more →

Australia-based AVZ Minerals Limited has secured a strategic, long-term offtake partner agreement with Yibin Tianyi Lithium Industry Co., Ltd. for the supply of spodumene concentrate (SC6) from the Manono Lithium and Tin Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Spodumene—a lithium mineral derived from pegmatite rock—is known for its... Read more →

Toyota Motor Company and Beijing SinoHytec have established a joint venture company to promote the commercial vehicle fuel cell system industry in China. The planned joint venture will be based in Beijing and named Toyota SinoHytec Fuel Cell (FCTS). Last year, Toyota Motor and five Chinese OEMs—China FAW Corporation Limited... Read more →

The e-Drive division of Integral Powertrain Limited (IP), manufacturer of electric motors and inverters, has entered a Technical Partnership with the NIO 333 Formula E Team. Having been involved with the motorsport sector, in particular, electrified motorsport for the past decade, IP is well-positioned to deliver and to support the... Read more →

Xiaomi Corporation—an internet company with smartphones and smart hardware connected by an Internet of Things (IoT) platform at its core—is launching its smart electric vehicle business with an official notice to Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX). Lei Jun, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Xiaomi, stated during a March 2021 launch... Read more →

On 24 March 2021, China-based electric vehicle maker NIO completed its 2,000,000th NIO Power Swap in Suzhou Delivery Center, China. On 26 May 2020—slightly less than 10 months ago—NIO had completed 500,000 swaps. (Earlier post.) NIO Power Swap stations have so far powered more than 396 million kilometers of driving... Read more →

Geely Auto Group (Geely Auto) officially announced the widely reported formation of Zeekr—a new electric mobility technology and solutions company based in China that will serve growing global demand for premium electric vehicles. Geely expects to deliver the first Zeekr vehicles in Q3, with production being undertaken by parent company... Read more →

China-based Momenta announced strategic cooperation with Toyota to provide automated HD mapping and updates through vision-based technologies. With this joint development, both companies aim to promote the commercialization of Toyota’s Automated Mapping Platform (AMP) in the China market to better serve Chinese customers. Momenta's vision-based (camera-based) HD mapping uses low-cost... Read more →

Westport Fuel Systems Inc. announced co-investment with its Tier 1 global injector manufacturing partner to expand their production facility in Yantai, China to supply jointly developed and proprietary fuel injectors to the growing global market for HPDI 2.0 (High Pressure Direct Injection 2.0). HPDI 2.0 is a fully OEM-integrated system... Read more →

RoboSense (Suteng Innovation Technology Co., Ltd.) has launched China’s first automotive-grade solid-state LiDAR production line and will start mass production and delivery of the automotive-grade solid-state LiDAR RS-LiDAR-M1 for contract projects in Q2 this year. At CES2021 in January, RoboSense officially unveiled the SOP version of the automotive-grade LiDAR RS-LiDAR-M1,... Read more →

China-based EV maker XPeng expanded its product offering by launching three new vehicle versions powered by lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries for the Chinese market. The three new LFP-battery powered cars, including the rear-wheel drive (RWD) P7 Standard Range Smart and Premium models, and the G3 460c model, are now... Read more →

Cadillac is upgrading the XT5 and XT6 SUV lineups in China with a 48V mild hybrid system for improved fuel economy and better driving performance. The 48V mild hybrid technology includes a 48V motor, power battery, power management module and hybrid control unit. As a result, the fuel efficiency of... Read more →

China has increased its production quota for rare-earth metals by close to 30% for the first half of this year, according to a report by the Nikkei. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Ministry of Natural Resources jointly announced that the production quota for the first half of... Read more →

On 19 February, LME cash prices for copper hit a nine-year peak of US$8,806.50/t. This is the highest level since 1 May 2012 when copper traded at US$8,528/t. Total visible copper stocks (LME + COMEX + SHFE + Chinese bonded warehouses) amounted to just 560kt at the end of January,... Read more →

Valin ArcelorMittal Automotive (VAMA), a 50/50 joint venture between ArcelorMittal, the world’s leading steel company and Valin Steel, a leading Chinese steelmaker, has begun construction on a new continuous hot-dip galvanizing line at its facilities in Loudi, Hunan, which will enable the production of highly corrosion-resistant steel. The coating line,... Read more →

Faurecia has acquired a majority of CLD, one of China’s largest high-pressure tank manufacturers. The transaction will be completed once regulatory approvals are obtained in China. Faurecia and CLD will develop and manufacture homologated type III and IV hydrogen storage tanks for the Chinese market. Headquartered in ShenYang, CLD has... Read more →

Australian rare earths exploration and development company RareX Limited entered into a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the leading global rare earths producer, China-based Shenghe Resources Holdings. Shenghe, listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, has a market capitalization of approximately US$4.6 billion. It is a leading producer of rare... Read more →

China-based battery maker CATL and the Guangdong Provincial Government have signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement, under which CATL will invest in the construction of a lithium battery production base in Zhaoqing, Guangdong. The first phase is planned to build a designed production capacity of 25GWh and an investment of... Read more →

Ford announced that Mustang Mach-E, its first global pioneering SUV built on an all-new, all-electric platform, will be manufactured in China by Changan Ford for local customers. Mustang Mach-E will become available in China later this year. Mustang Mach-E will offer Chinese customers a smart cockpit equipped with Ford’s latest... Read more →

Unit 5 of China’s Fuqing Nuclear Power Plant, the first project to adopt China’s indigenous Generation III nuclear power technology Hualong One (HPR 1000), has been put into commercial operation, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) announced. The success marks a milestone for the development of China’s nuclear power, making China... Read more →

CBAK Energy Technology, a lithium-ion battery manufacturer and electric energy solution provider, signed a three-year strategic agreement with Anhui Jianghuai Motors Group Co., Ltd for joint product development. JAC Motors is a Chinese state-owned automobile and commercial vehicle manufacturer. Founded in 1964, JAC Motors is among the top four domestic... Read more →

China-based battery maker CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd) and its subsidiary Shenzhen Dynanonic signed an agreement with Jiang’an county government (located in south-west China’s Sichuan province) to build a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathode materials plant with a production capacity of 80 tpy. The construction of the plant is... Read more →

Velodyne Lidar, Inc. and Beijing Trunk Technology Co., Ltd. (Trunk.Tech) will collaborate in developing next-generation autonomous heavy trucks and to accelerate commercialization of driverless trucks in China’s logistics market. Velodyne and Trunk.Tech will cooperate on lidar-enabled products that meet the demanding requirements of high-speed transportation logistics. These solutions will strengthen... Read more →

Geely Auto Group and Tencent signed an agreement to carry out strategic cooperation in the fields of digitalization, intelligent cockpits, autonomous drive, and low-carbon development. The two parties will work together to digitalize fully all aspects of an automotive product lifecycle from product development, manufacturing, marketing, vehicle utilization, to after-sales... Read more →

Audi and FAW are forming a new new cooperation company for the future production of PPE-based electric vehicles in Changchun in the northeast of China. AUDI AG and Volkswagen Group China will receive a 60% share, making this company—founded for the local production of fully electric Audi models on the... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Group signed an investment contract with the government of Guangdong Province to establish an offshore fuel cell system production facility in Guangzhou, China. The investment advances the Group’s global hydrogen leadership and supports its push into China’s rapidly developing hydrogen industry. Construction is scheduled to begin next month... Read more →

China-based EV company XPeng signed a strategic cooperation agreement with leading domestic banks at a signing ceremony held in Guangzhou, China, pursuant to which it will secure a credit line of RMB12.8 billion (US$1.98 billion) with an extensive range of credit facilities. Under the terms of the agreement, five domestic... Read more →

Baidu, Inc., a leading China-based Internet platform and AI company, plans to establish a company to produce intelligent electric vehicles (EV), and that it has entered into a strategic partnership with multinational auto manufacturer Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. Baidu will provide intelligent driving capabilities to power the passenger vehicles for... Read more →

General Motors and its joint ventures delivered 2.9 million vehicles in China in 2020. Sales were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in the first quarter and started to recover in the second quarter. Deliveries posted a strong rebound in the second half, led by SUVs, MPVs and luxury vehicles, with... Read more →

Xpeng Inc, a Chinese smart electric vehicle company, announced its vehicle delivery results for December 2020, the fourth quarter and year-ended December 31, 2020. Xpeng achieved a record monthly delivery of 5,700 Smart EVs in December 2020, consisting of a record high 3,691 P7s, the company’s sports smart sedan, and... Read more →