Mercedes-Benz is getting ready to go all-electric by the end of the decade, where market conditions allow, shifting from electric-first to electric-only. By 2022, Mercedes-Benz will have battery electric vehicles (BEV) in all segments the company serves. From 2025 onwards, all newly launched vehicle architectures will be electric-only and customers... Read more →

BHP will supply Tesla Inc. with nickel from BHP’s Nickel West asset in Western Australia; BHP says that Nickel West is one of the most sustainable and lowest carbon emission nickel producers in the world. Nickel is a key metal used in Tesla’s battery technology. Demand for nickel in batteries... Read more →

In June, Porsche announced an investment in its new joint venture company Cellforce Group GmbH. Porsche and joint venture partner Customcells, a spin-off from Fraunhofer, also announced the launch of production of high-performance battery cells at Porsche’s Weissach Development Center. (Earlier post.) The new high-performance cells will use silicon as... Read more →

Li-Cycle Corp., the largest lithium-ion battery recycler in North America, is partnering with Univar Solutions OnSite Services, a leader in waste management, to provide waste management solutions for lithium-ion batteries. Through the partnership, Li-Cycle and Univar Solutions customers will benefit from a waste management solution for lithium-ion battery waste across... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding a total of $125 million to support 110 clean energy technology projects (DE-FOA-0002381). Within that total, DOE’s Office of Energy and Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) will award $57.6 million to 53 projects by 51 small businesses and entrepreneurs with phase II... Read more →

FREYR Battery will proceed with the construction of the Customer Qualification Plant (CQP) and first battery cell production line in Mo i Rana, Norway. The final investment decision (FID) comes after completing the tender processes and allows for the award of contracts for key production equipment supply. Preparatory work on... Read more →

Group14 Technologies, a global provider of silicon-carbon composite materials for lithium-ion markets, and SK materials, one of the world’s top manufacturers of special gases and industrial gases, are forming a joint venture to build a factory for lithium-silicon battery materials in South Korea. The joint venture is the latest development... Read more →

Volkswagen of America, Inc. will end assembly of the Passat sedan in Chattanooga with model year 2022 as part of the plant’s transformation to build future electric vehicles. To celebrate the integral role of the Passat in the resurgence of Volkswagen in the United States, a short-run Limited Edition will... Read more →

Modern automobiles are built with more than 2,000 different compounds comprising 76 different elements. Now, a study by a team from MIT’s Materials Systems Laboratory, with support from Ford, provides insight into how electrification is changing vehicle composition and how that change is driving supply risk vulnerability. The study, published... Read more →

LG Chem will invest 6 trillion KRW (US$5.3 billion) in battery materials by 2025, including efforts in anode materials, separation membranes, cathode binders, radiant adhesives, carbon nanotubes, and more, according to LG Chem CEO Hak Cheol Shin. The investment is part of a 10 trillion KRW (US$8.8 billion) investment in... Read more →

The Mercedes-Benz plant in Wörth is becoming the center for emission-free transport within the Mercedes-Benz truck production network. Management and the works council have agreed on a corresponding target picture for the site. Both parties agreed on key points for the future development and safeguarding of the future of Mercedes-Benz... Read more →

Japan-based Chiyoda Corporation has been awarded a $2.7-billion engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract by PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI)—a mineral mining company affiliate of US-based Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) and MIND ID Indonesia’s Mining Industry—for a copper smelter in Gresik, East Java, Indonesia. The new plant will include smelting and converting furnaces,... Read more →

SK Siltron CSS, a semiconductor wafer manufacturer, plans to invest $300 million and create up to 150 high-paying, skilled jobs in Bay County, Mich., over the next three years to provide manufacturing and R&D capabilities of advanced materials for electric vehicles. The expansion will more than double the company’s Michigan... Read more →

Volkswagen Group executives laid out the basics of the new Group strategy “NEW AUTO – Mobility for Generations to Come”, which will see the Group realign from being a from vehicle manufacturer to a leading, global software-driven mobility provider. The guiding principle is to be the development of sustainable, connected,... Read more →

Volkswagen Group and Gotion High-Tech Co., Ltd. are deepening their partnership. Based on a substantial shareholding agreement in May 2020, Volkswagen Group entered a strategic cooperation framework with the major Chinese battery producer headquartered at Hefei. The goals of both partners are to industrialize the planned battery cell production at... Read more →

Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory have conducted life cycle analyses (LCAs) for battery-grade lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) and lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LiOH•H2O) produced from Chilean brines (Salar de Atacama) and Australian spodumene ores. An open-access paper on the study is published in the journal Resources, Conservation and Recycling. The team also... Read more →

ArcelorMittal signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Spanish Government that will see a €1-billion investment in decarbonization technologies at ArcelorMittal Asturias’ plant in Gijón. The investments will reduce CO2 emissions at ArcelorMittal’s Spanish operations by up to 4.8 million tonnes, which represents approximately 50% of emissions, within the... Read more →

Alumobility, a non-profit organization focused on solutions to advance the adoption of aluminum automotive body sheet, announced the results of its technical study demonstrating affordable lightweighting through the proposed conversion of a mass-produced C-segment SUV passenger door from steel to aluminum. The results of the study show the new aluminum... Read more →

Less than one year after its launch, the French battery company Verkor has raised €100 million (US$119 million) in funding. Co-led by EQT Ventures and Renault Group, with participation from the French Government and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region, the funding will support the company’s expansion, and trigger the construction of the Verkor... Read more →

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, have found a way to increase simultaneously the strength and ductility of an alloy by introducing tiny precipitates into its matrix and tuning their size and spacing. The precipitates are solids that separate from... Read more →

Orion Engineered Carbons S.A., a global supplier of specialty and high-performance carbon black, has joined the HiQ-CARB consortium to provide the lithium-ion battery industry with sustainable and high-performance carbon additives. Seven leading European industry players, research institutes, and universities are collaborating on the European Union-funded HiQ-CARB project to design and... Read more →

Toyocolor Co., Ltd., the colorants and functional materials division of Japan’s Toyo Ink Group, will supply the North American and European operations of SK Innovation, a South Korean lithium-ion (li-ion) battery manufacturer, with Toyocolor’s Lioaccum series of conductive carbon nanotube (CNT) dispersions. Lioaccum dispersions are used as the conductive additive... Read more →

Russia-based Halmek Lithium has selected Metso Outotec’s patented lithium hydroxide process for production of battery-grade lithium hydroxide at its greenfield plant in the Tula region in Russia. The order value has not been disclosed. Battery-grade lithium hydroxide Metso Outotec’s scope of delivery consists of the engineering and key equipment supply... Read more →

Stellantis is investing £100 million (US$139 million) in Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port manufacturing plant in the UK to transform the site for a new era in electric vehicle manufacturing. Ellesmere Port will become the first Stellantis plant to produce a solely battery-electric model, in both commercial and passenger versions, by the... Read more →

Nearly 76 GWh of battery cell capacity was produced for the US plug-in vehicle market from 2010 to 2020, according to a recent analysis of the Li-ion battery supply chain by researchers at Argonne National Laboratory. Five companies (AESC, LG Chem, Panasonic, Samsung, and SK Innovation) produced almost all the... Read more →

At the “SK Innovation Story Day” briefing session in Seoul last week, Dong-Seob Jee, President of SK Innovation’s Battery Business, said from its current 40 GWh battery production level, the company expects to reach 85 GWh in 2023, 200 GWh in 2025 and more than 500 GWh in 2030. In... Read more →

Blackstone Resources AG announced that its German subsidiary Blackstone Technology GmbH will increase its battery production capacity tenfold to 500 MWh per annum by 2022 for Li-ion batteries, which contain 3D-printed battery electrodes, at Blackstone’s Döbeln site in Saxony. The company recently signed a letter of intent (LOI) with Triathlon... Read more →

BMW has begun series production of the fully-electric BMW iX in Dingolfing. The plant now produces vehicles with all drivetrain variants—i.e. combustion-engine vehicles, plug-in hybrids and fully-electric models—on a single line. Start of Production of the new BMW iX at BMW Group Plant Dingolfing. The picture shows (from left to... Read more →

An editorial in the journal Nature calls on policy makers, industry leaders and researchers to mitigate quickly the environmental and human costs of Li-ion batteries. Li-ion batteries currently are the indispensable enabling technology for electric vehicles and the electric grid, the latter due to the need to store energy from... Read more →

Nissan unveiled Nissan EV36Zero, a £1-billion flagship Electric Vehicle (EV) Hub —an EV manufacturing ecosystem—centered around its plant in Sunderland, UK. The project has been launched with an initial £1-billion (US$1.4-billion) investment by Nissan and its partners battery-maker Envision AESC and Sunderland City Council. Comprising three interconnected initiatives, Nissan EV36Zero... Read more →

The Karma Innovation and Customization Center (KICC) revealed the first Club Car Current vehicles being produced under a contract manufacturing agreement with AYRO. These light-duty EVs fill the gap between full-sized trucks and small utility carts for low-speed logistics and cargo services in campus and urban environments. Karma and AYRO... Read more →

Porsche is making further efforts to reduce CO₂ emissions in its supply chain: the sports car manufacturer is calling for its around 1,300 series suppliers to use exclusively renewable energy in the manufacture of Porsche components as of July 2021. It applies to any contracts awarded for providing production material... Read more →

Constellium SE has expanded its longstanding partnership with Audi to supply advanced aluminum solutions for the Audi e-tron GT. Electric vehicles require strong, yet lightweight solutions to optimize range and prioritize safety. Constellium provides ASI-certified aluminum Auto Body Sheet solutions for closures and inner parts, as well as extrusion-based components... Read more →

BASF will build a battery recycling prototype plant in Schwarzheide, Germany, at the site of its cathode active materials (CAM) plant. The prototype recycling plant will allow for the development of operational procedures and optimization of technology to deliver superior returns of lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese from end-of-life lithium-ion... Read more →

The United States is the third-largest electric vehicle (EV) producer behind China and Europe; a new study from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) finds that the gap has widened. The ICCT study finds that the United States’ share of cumulative global EV production decreased from 20% to 18%... Read more →

More than half of all battery cells used in plug-in electric vehicles (BEVs and PHEVs) since 2010 have been produced in the US, as have nearly 90% of all battery packs, according to a recent study of the Li-ion battery supply chain by a team at Argonne National Laboratory. Annual... Read more →

The Renault Group has entered two major partnerships for the production of Li-ion batteries in France. The first is with Envision AESC—a long-standing partner of Nissan; the second is with Verkor, a Grenoble-based start-up specialized in development of EV battery cells. Envision AESC which will develop a gigafactory in Douai... Read more →

McPhy, specialized in zero-carbon hydrogen production and distribution equipment (electrolyzers and hydrogen stations), is opening a new industrial site dedicated to the development and mass production of hydrogen stations. Operational from March 2022, this new factory will bring together the research and innovation, engineering and production activities currently based in... Read more →

Oshkosh Defense has selected Spartanburg, South Carolina to be the home of its efforts to build the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV) for the US Postal Service. (Earlier post.) The NGDV is the USPS’ first large-scale fleet procurement in three decades. Oshkosh Defense, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oshkosh Corporation, will... Read more →

SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall have now produced hydrogen-reduced sponge iron on a pilot scale. The technological breakthrough within the HYBRIT (earlier post) initiative cuts about 90% of the emissions in connection with steel production and is a decisive step on the road to fossil-free steel. The test production was carried... Read more →

Volvo Car Group intends to establish a joint venture with Swedish battery company Northvolt to develop and produce more sustainable batteries, tailored to power the next generation of pure electric Volvo and Polestar cars. As a first step for the 50/50 joint venture, Volvo Car Group and Northvolt aim to... 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 →

In Russia, JSC Rusatom Overseas (a company of ROSATOM); Metalloinvest, a leading manufacturer and supplier of iron ore products and hot briquetted iron (HBI) in the world market, and one of the regional producers of high-quality steel; and Air Liquide signed a memorandum of understanding to study the possibility of... Read more →

Volkswagen is pressing ahead with the use of 3D printers in car production. For the first time, binder jetting is being used to manufacture components at the company’s main plant in Wolfsburg, Germany. (earlier post) Whereas conventional 3D printing uses a laser to build a component layer by layer from... Read more →

The BMW Group has created a closed-loop material cycle for tungsten used in drill and milling bits for industrial machinery used in producing cars; the company is collecting old drill and milling bits at its plants in Germany and Austria for recycling. The secondary tungsten obtained in this way will... Read more →

Australia-based Magnis Energy Technologies Limited announced that Imperium3 New York (iM3NY) has produced its first full-sized prismatic cells ahead of schedule for limited testing and customer sampling in Q3 2021. The first cells were produced using manual settings to refine the product design for future automated production. While the volumes... Read more →

Fisker Inc. signed a binding agreement supporting manufacturing with Magna International. Along with the previously signed agreements on electric vehicle (EV) platform sharing and ADAS package, this finalizes the framework established between the two companies beginning in October 2020. Fisker and Magna also confirmed that production of the all-electric Fisker... Read more →

As part of the THINKTANK Industrial Resource Strategies, researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have been working with Audi on the pilot project “Chemical Recycling of plastics from automotive manufacturing.” The results of the project indicated that the chemical recycling of mixed plastic waste is both technically feasible... Read more →

Polestar, the premium electric car brand from Sweden, announced that its first all-electric SUV will be manufactured in the United States. The forthcoming Polestar 3 will be manufactured alongside new Volvo vehicles at the Volvo Cars production center in Ridgeville, South Carolina. Polestar vehicles built in South Carolina will be... Read more →

General Motors will increase its EV and AV investments from 2020 through 2025 to $35 billion, representing a 75% increase from its initial commitment announced prior to the pandemic. We are investing aggressively in a comprehensive and highly-integrated plan to make sure that GM leads in all aspects of the... Read more →