24M Technologies announced the delivery of commercial-sized lithium metal battery cells, integrated with its Impervio separator and Eternalyte electrolyte, to a major automotive original equipment manufacturer (OEM). This milestone marks a significant step toward large-scale production of safer, more reliable, electric vehicle (EV) batteries. 24M’s Impervio technology is a battery... Read more →

NextStar Energy, the joint venture formed by LG Energy Solution and Stellantis, has started battery module production, marking a significant milestone in its operations ramp up. Construction has been progressing at a steady pace, with more than 7,500 Canadian tradespeople contributing nearly 5.7 million construction man-hours since NextStar’s groundbreaking in... Read more →

At the International Suppliers Fair (IZB) in Wolfsburg, Germany, Volkswagen Group and thyssenkrupp Steel signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the planned supply to Volkswagen Group of low-carbon steel from thyssenkrupp Steel’s future direct reduction plant. thyssenkrupp Steel’s direct reduction plant, which is scheduled to go into operation in... Read more →

The US Department of Commerce and Hemlock Semiconductor (HSC) signed a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms (PMT) to provide up to $325 million in proposed direct funding under the CHIPS and Science Act to solidify US leadership in semiconductor-grade polysilicon production. The proposed funding would support the construction of a... Read more →

Mercedes-Benz opened Europe’s first battery recycling plant with an integrated mechanical-hydrometallurgical process making it the first car manufacturer worldwide to close the battery recycling loop with its own in-house facility. Unlike existing established processes, the expected recovery rate of the mechanical-hydrometallurgical recycling plant is more than 96%. Valuable and scarce... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Corporation are hosting E-FOREST TECH DAY 2024, a new technology exhibition to share innovative smart factory manufacturing technologies. The fifth annual event also serves as a platform for presenting Hyundai Motor and Kia’s vision for the future transition to a Software-Defined Factory (SDF). E-FOREST TECH... Read more →

South Korean Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok, along with the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, the First Vice Minister of Trade, Industry, and Energy visited POSCO’s Pohang Steelworks on 17 October to discuss measures for boosting investment and toured around the proposed site for hydrogen-based steelmaking and the operations at... Read more →

Stegra—which renamed itself from H2 Green Steel in September—is partnering with John Laing and Aquatech to provide sustainable water treatment plant to the world’s first large-scale green steel plant. John Laing is a leading international investor and active manager of core infrastructure assets and Aquatech is a leading provider of... Read more →

thyssenkrupp sold the Indian company thyssenkrupp Electrical Steel India Private Ltd. to JSW Steel Limited and JFE Steel Corporation. The Indian-Japanese consortium is acquiring the Indian electrical steel business of thyssenkrupp for a purchase price of around €440 million. thyssenkrupp Electrical Steel India is part of the Electrical Steel business... Read more →

Advent Technologies announced significant performance breakthroughs for its Membrane Electrode Assembly (Advent MEA G2) technology. The Advent MEA G2 technology has already been provided for testing to select strategic partners, in the automotive and aerospace industries. It is being developed within the framework of L’Innovator, the company’s joint development program... Read more →

Lyten announced plans to invest more than $1 billion to build the world’s first Lithium-Sulfur battery gigafactory. The facility will be located near Reno, Nevada, and will have the capability to produce up to 10 GWh of batteries annually at full scale. Phase 1 of the facility is scheduled to... Read more →

GM Ventures announced a $10-million investment in Forge Nano, a materials science company specializing in atomic layer deposition. General Motors and Forge Nano have also entered a strategic partnership agreement to collaborate on potential atomic layer deposition applications for GM batteries. Atomic layer deposition is a surface engineering technique that... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced that the City of Duluth and its local development partners will receive DOE support to develop hydrogen and renewable energy systems, as well as a clean energy workforce, to enable the deployment of a green iron plant in the region. Minnesota is the... Read more →

Rio Tinto and Arcadium Lithium announced a definitive agreement under which Rio Tinto will acquire Arcadium in an all-cash transaction for US$5.85 per share. (Earlier post.) The transaction represents a premium of 90% to Arcadium’s closing price of $3.08 per share on 4 October 2024, a premium of 39% to... Read more →

Dongfeng Honda, a Honda automobile production and sales joint venture in China, has opened its new energy vehicle (NEV) production plant in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. The 4-billion RMB (US$566-million) plant has a production capacity of approximately 120,000 units/year. The Dongfeng Honda NEV production plant is the first dedicated... Read more →

SiAT, a leading Taiwanese manufacturer of advanced nanomaterials for batteries, and CSAC, the largest Taiwanese aluminum producer, released the latest test results for their joint CNT-coated aluminum foil (CCAF) during a speaker session at the Battery Show Detroit on 8 October. Launched in February, the CCAF is designed to meet... Read more →

Sylvatex (SVX), a Bay Area-based battery materials manufacturing technology company producing lower cost and lower carbon cathode active materials (CAM) for electric vehicle (EV) and energy storage system (ESS) batteries, announced itself as a recipient of $1.4 million in total project funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARAP-E). The... Read more →

Hyzon, a US-based hydrogen fuel cell system manufacturer and technology developer, announced the Start of Production (SOP) of its revolutionary single-stack 200kW Fuel Cell System (FCS). This enables Hyzon to manufacture standardized FCSs at volume for commercial sale, further accelerating the decarbonization of heavy-duty industries. At SOP, all necessary conditions... Read more →

Honda Motor held its “Honda 0 Tech Meeting 2024” and introduced some of the next-generation technologies to be applied to the Honda 0 Series, a completely new EV series Honda is planning to launch in the global market starting in 2026. The Honda 0 Series is being developed with new... Read more →

ENNOVI, a mobility electrification solutions partner, augmented its prismatic and cylindrical battery cell contacting systems with the launch of ENNOVI-CellConnect-Pouch. Designed for the battery manufacturers favoring the pouch cell form factor, the new cell contacting system prioritizes cost-effectiveness with ENNOVI’s FDC technologies, faster manufacturing cycle time, and aids the fast... Read more →

Integrals Power reports a breakthrough in Lithium Manganese Iron Phosphate (LMFP) cathode active materials for battery cells. Applying its propriety materials technology and patented manufacturing process, the company has overcome the drop in specific capacity compared that typically occurs as the percentage of manganese in increased. The result is cathode... Read more →

In a world’s first for heavy vehicle makers, Scania’s has integrated reused components on its main assembly line in Sweden. The achievement took place earlier this year as part of the iReGear joint research project with KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Scandinavian Transmission Service AB, and was made possible... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Company has marked 100 million units of global cumulative production. This achievement was accomplished in the 57 years since the company’s foundation, making it one of the fastest in the global automotive industry. In honor of this milestone, Hyundai Motor held a ceremony at its Ulsan Plant in... Read more →

China-based NIO Inc. has entered into definitive agreements for investment in NIO Holding Co., Ltd., a PRC subsidiary in which it holds 92.1% controlling equity interest (NIO China), with Hefei Jianheng New Energy Automobile Investment Fund Partnership (Limited Partnership), Anhui Provincial Emerging Industry Investment Co., Ltd. and CS Capital Co.,... Read more →

Dürr presented its latest innovation in simultaneous two-sided coating technology for the battery manufacturing industry. The new GigaCoater, designed for battery cell OEMs, combines wider substrate capabilities with faster coating speeds, promising significant manufacturing cost reductions while maintaining automotive-grade quality across widths up to 1,200 mm. Demonstration GigaCoater. The GigaCoater... Read more →

Altilium, a UK-based clean technology group focused on supporting the transition to net zero, announced a project to produce and validate EV battery cells using materials recovered from end-of-life EV batteries. In a first for the UK, the project will demonstrate battery cells produced with recovered cathode active materials (CAM)... Read more →

JLR announced a £500-million (US$669-million) investment to transform its historic Halewood plant to support the parallel production of electric vehicles, alongside existing combustion and hybrid models. With £250 million already invested, the transformation so far has involved more than one million hours of construction work over the last 12 months.... Read more →

Kia Corporation celebrated the opening of Kia Gwangmyeong EVO Plant, Hyundai Motor Group’s first dedicated EV manufacturing facility. Located at Kia Autoland Gwangmyeong, the new South Korean facility has an annual production capacity of 150,000 units and started production of the Kia EV3 in the first half of this year,... Read more →

Toyota Alabama has assembled its 10-millionth engine, an i-Force MAX 2.4-liter, to power an all-new hybrid Tacoma. The engine plant, which first broke ground in 2001, assembles a third of all Toyota engines in North America. Toyota Alabama’s 2,000 team members assemble upwards of 777,000 engines a year. When the... Read more →

Hyundai Motor and Kia launched a project to develop lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cathode material. In collaboration with Hyundai Steel and EcoPro BM, a leader in the cathode material market, this venture aims to synthesize materials directly without creating a precursor for LFP battery cathode material production. The Korean... Read more →

REE Automotive, an automotive technology company and provider of full by-wire electric trucks and platforms, selected Roush Industries, a leading innovative vehicle contract manufacturer, to assemble REE’s P7 vehicles at Roush’s Detroit-area factory. REE will continue to manufacture its proprietary REEcorner technology in its UK Coventry Integration Center. Roush’s assembly... Read more →

LG Chem will supply cathode active materials (CAM) to Prime Planet Energy & Solutions (PPES), a Japanese joint venture of Toyota Motor Corporation and Panasonic Corporation. PPES, a pivotal EV battery manufacturer based in Japan, has been supplying batteries to numerous global OEMs including Toyota. As part of its global... Read more →

NanoGraf, an advanced silicon anode battery material company enabling stronger, lighter, and longer-lasting lithium-ion batteries, has been awarded a $60-million grant from the US Department of Energy’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) to retrofit an existing manufacturing facility in Flint, Michigan. At full capacity, the advanced production... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced its new Battery Workforce Challenge Program, a comprehensive workforce development program designed to build and train a diverse, domestic workforce and to promote job creation for battery and electric vehicle (EV) technicians, electricians, skilled workers, and engineers. Managed by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL),... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced more than $3 billion for across 14 states to boost the domestic production of advanced batteries and battery materials nationwide. The portfolio of selected projects, once fully contracted, are projected to support more than 8,000 construction jobs and more than 4,000 operating jobs.... Read more →

Forge Battery, the commercial lithium-ion battery production subsidiary of Forge Nano, has been selected for award negotiations of up to $100 million in non-dilutive funding by the Department of Energy’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) to expand Forge’s North Carolina lithium-ion battery gigafactory production capacity to 3... Read more →

Group14 Technologies, a developer of advanced silicon battery materials, has been selected for an award negotiation of up to $200 million by the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) as part of the second set of projects funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law... Read more →

Solid Power, a developer of solid-state battery technology, was selected by the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) to begin award negotiations for up to $50 million in federal funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. With this project, Solid Power intends to install... Read more →

Urbix, a US-based developer of graphite processing technology, has been selected by the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) for final negotiations for an award of up to $125 million towards the construction of a commercial-scale graphite processing facility utilizing its proprietary methods... Read more →

Sila Nanotechnologies, a next-generation battery materials company, announced a multi-year supply agreement with a wholly owned subsidiary of REC Silicon ASA, a supplier of solar-grade silicon and silicon materials. Under the terms of the agreement, REC will supply Sila with high-quality, US-produced silane for use in the production of Sila's... Read more →

A new report by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) finds that only four of the 17 major automakers selling vehicles in Europe and North America have committed to start using any fossil-free steel by 2030. The commitments total an estimated 2% of the global steel used by all... Read more →

Group14 Technologies, the world’s largest global manufacturer and supplier of advanced silicon battery materials, is shipping its SCC55 material, produced from an EV-scale joint venture (JV) factory based in Sangju, South Korea. Group14 has completed shipments to more than 100 electric vehicle (EV) and consumer electronics (CE) battery manufacturing customers... Read more →

Nanoscale Components, a provider of electrochemical prelithiation technology, is commissioning its new modular GWh scale, roll-to-roll prelithiation line in North America. The unique underlying technology uses an inherently safe electrochemical reaction to eliminate the hazards posed by other prelithiation methods. The highly automated equipment is designed to operate 24 x... Read more →

REE Automotive, an automotive technology company and provider of full by-wire electric trucks and platforms, and Motherson Group, an engineering and manufacturing specialist and a major supplier to the automotive industry with long-standing relationships with global OEMs such as Mercedes Benz, Audi, Volkswagen, Suzuki, BMW, Porsche, GM, Ford, Stellantis, Daimler... Read more →

Subaru Corporation and Panasonic Energy, a Panasonic Group Company, plan to prepare for the supply of automotive lithium-ion batteries and joint establishment of a new battery factory in Oizumi, Gunma Prefecture, Japan. Panasonic Energy will supply its next-generation cylindrical automotive lithium-ion batteries for the battery electric vehicles (BEVs) Subaru plans... Read more →

General Motors and Hyundai Motor signed an agreement to explore future collaboration across key strategic areas. GM and Hyundai will look for ways to leverage their complementary scale and strengths to reduce costs and bring a wider range of vehicles and technologies to customers faster. Potential collaboration projects center on... Read more →

Stellantis is investing more than $406 million in three Michigan facilities to support its multi-energy strategy and confirmed that the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant (SHAP) will be the company’s first US plant to build a fully electric vehicle. The Ram 1500 REV, the company’s first battery-electric light-duty pickup truck launching... Read more →

Volvo is increasing the use of low-CO2-emission steel in its trucks. This steel is produced with recycled material and fossil-free energy and will be used in tens of thousands of Volvo trucks starting next year. Volvo was the world’s first truck manufacturer to introduce this type of steel in its... Read more →

Volvo CE inaugurated new facilities to support the production of electric wheel loaders at its plant in Arvika, Sweden. The building in Arvika is the latest development for the Swedish site which specializes in manufacturing medium and large wheel loaders. Measuring approximately 1,500 sq m and constructed in less than... Read more →

Nissan Motor announced that its development and mass production of in-vehicle, lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries has been certified in Japan by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). Through the development and mass-production of LFP batteries, Nissan intends to establish a base in Japan by strengthening the supply chain of... Read more →