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 →

Subject to ratification of a tentative 2021 agreement reached with Unifor and confirmation of government support, General Motors plans to bring production of its recently announced BrightDrop electric light commercial vehicle, the EV600 (earlier post), to its CAMI manufacturing plant in Ingersoll, Ontario. Powered by the Ultium battery system, the... Read more →

Moscow-based NPP ITELMA, a leading developer and manufacturer of vehicle and transportation electronics, has presented a full powertrain system for electric bus manufacturers. The system will also make it possible to upfit any modern bus to an electric bus, the company said. The developers promise to reduce energy consumption of... Read more →

The US Forest Service has published the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for Rio Tinto’s and BHP’s Resolution Copper mine project in Arizona (earlier post). The publication comes after more than seven years of public and 11 years of tribal consultation. This reflects a delay from the July 2020 target... 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 →

In France, Luca de Meo, CEO Groupe Renault, presented the group’s new strategic plan— “Renaulution”—which, among other more specific elements, aims to shift Groupe Renault’s strategy from volumes to value. In accordance with this value-driven organization, the company will no longer measure its performance on market shares and sales but... Read more →

Constellium SE is leading a new R&D initiative in France, Project ISA3 (Intégration de Solutions Aluminium pour Alléger les Automobiles (Integration of Aluminium Solutions to Lightweight Automotive vehicles)). In partnership with Groupe Renault, ESI Group, Institut de Soudure (Welding Institute), and the University of Lorraine, this ~€7 million project will... Read more →

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (Geely Holding) and Foxconn Technology Group (Foxconn) signed a strategic cooperative agreement that will establish a 50-50 joint venture company to provide OEM production and comprehensive customized consulting services relating to whole vehicles, parts, intelligent drive systems, automotive ecosystem platforms, electric vehicle industry value chain, and... Read more →

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) announced approximately $123.6 million in funding, as well as $44.7 million of cost share, for 46 projects in 23 states to stimulate technology innovation, improve the energy productivity of American manufacturing, and enable the manufacturing of... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is awarding an additional $47 million in funding for seven projects as part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy’s (ARPA-E) Seeding Critical Advances for Leading Energy technologies with Untapped Potential (SCALEUP) program. Three of the projects (Sila, 24M and Ionic Materials) are scaling up... Read more →

Bridgestone Corporation has developed an optimization system for Pará rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) plantations. The system utilizes big data to contribute to higher yield at these rubber farms. The natural rubber currently used to produce tires is sourced from the Pará rubber tree, which primarily grows in Southeast Asia. Natural... Read more →

Tenaris, Edison and Snam have signed a letter of intent to launch a project aimed at decarbonizing Tenaris’ seamless pipe mill in Dalmine, Italy through the introduction of green hydrogen in some production processes. Tenaris, Edison and Snam will collaborate to identify and implement the most suitable solutions for the... Read more →

Volvo Cars is tripling electric car manufacturing capacity at its plant in Ghent, Belgium as it prepares to meet fast growing demand for its Recharge line-up of chargeable cars. By 2022, electric car capacity at the Ghent plant will have more than tripled from today’s levels and will amount to... Read more →

The EU says it could be self-sufficient in EV batteries by 2025. However, despite Europe’s fast-expanding capacity of Li-ion battery production, its cathode materials production capacity is struggling to keep up. Roskill’s analysis suggests that by 2025, Europe will still have to import 56% of the cathode materials used for... Read more →

AUDI AG is the first automobile maker to be awarded the Chain of Custody certificate of the Aluminum Stewardship Initiative (ASI). This certifies that Audi can comply with the materials flow chain for sustainably produced aluminum in accordance with the ASI standard and can also input correspondingly certified material to... Read more →

ArcelorMittal Dofasco announced a coating addition of its Nº 5 Hot-Dipped Galvanizing Line in Hamilton (Ontaria, Canada) to Aluminum Silicon (Alusi) for the production of ArcelorMittal’s patented Usibor Press Hardenable Steel for automotive structural and safety components. Alusi is a steel covered on both sides by an aluminum (90%) and... Read more →

The FCA Group will invest more than $200 million in its plant in Tychy, Poland, where new hybrid and electric Jeep, Fiat and Alfa Romeo models will be built. The investment will involve the expansion and modernization of the FCA Poland plant and will last several years. The goal is... Read more →

The US Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has awarded nearly $4 million in grants to help accelerate the adoption of new measurement methods and standards to advance US competitiveness in metals-based additive manufacturing (AM). Additive manufacturing typically creates parts and components by building them layer... Read more →

ABB has been chosen to supply its patented ArcSave electromagnetic stirrers as part of a substantial refit at leading Chinese iron and steel producer Guangdong Nanfang Donghai’s steelmaking plant in Guangdong Province, southern China. The order comprises two ArcSave systems for use with two new electric arc furnaces (EAF). ArcSave... Read more →

Battery anode company Talga Group Ltd completed an A$25-million (US$19-million) placement to fund the Electric Vehicle Anode (EVA) pilot plant as part of the development of the Vittangi Anode Project located in northern Sweden. Combining a scalable battery anode production facility with integrated graphite mining operations, the project will be... Read more →

FREYR AS and 24M Technologies signed a definitive License and Services Agreement to use 24M’s SemiSolid lithium-ion battery platform technology (earlier post) in FREYR’s planned facilities in Mo i Rana, Norway. FREYR is targeting the development of more than 40 GWh of scalable, modular battery cell production capacity via a... Read more →

Yibin Tianyi Lithium—a joint venture of Canmax, CATL and Tianyuan Group established in 2018—has formally commissioned a 20ktpy lithium hydroxide plant in Yibin, Sichuan province. The company plans to construct 45ktpy of lithium hydroxide capacity in two phases and targets a total capacity of 100ktpy by 2025. The start-up of... Read more →

The last e-Golf has rolled off the production line at the Transparent Factory in Dresden. A total of 50,401 vehicles have been manufactured in Dresden since March 2017. At the beginning of the new year 2021, the production area of the Transparent Factory will be reconstructed for three weeks before... Read more →

Daimler AG and Infosys announced a long-term strategic partnership for a technology-driven IT infrastructure transformation. After the receipt of all regulatory approvals, Daimler AG will transform its IT operating model and infrastructure landscape across workplace services, service desk, data center, networks and SAP Basis together with Infosys. The partnership will... Read more →

The EU plans to extend its climate goal of reducing CO2 emission of new vehicles by 37.5% until 2030 to heavy-duty vehicles. In 2019, 409,801 commercial vehicles were registered in Germany, of these, 38,620 semitrailer trucks. So far, they have not been subject to any CO2 reduction requirements. Within the... Read more →

Teijin Limited has signed a technical license agreement with Shanghai Energy New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. (SEMCORP), a leading producer of competitively priced base films for lithium-ion secondary batteries (LiBs), to manufacture solvent-based coating separators used in LiBs for electric vehicles and additional applications such as electronic devices and energy... Read more →

Porsche has produced its first complete housing for an electric drive using 3D printing. The engine-gearbox unit produced using the additive laser fusion process passed all the quality and stress tests without any problems. This proves that additive manufacturing with all its advantages is also suitable for larger and highly-stressed... Read more →

Fisker Inc. has entered into definitive “operational phase” platform-sharing and initial manufacturing agreements with Magna International Inc., which clarify and finalize key aspects of the framework agreement previously announced on 15 October 2020. (Earlier post.) The Fisker Ocean will initially be manufactured exclusively by Magna in Europe, where it currently... Read more →

Rio Tinto has committed to invest $10 million with the world’s largest steel producer China Baowu Steel Group over the next two years in low-carbon steelmaking projects and research. This investment is the next step in advancing the partnership formed between Rio Tinto, China Baowu and Tsinghua University in 2019... Read more →

Solid Power, a developer of all solid-state batteries for electric vehicles, announced that its Louisville, Colo. facility is producing 20 Ah multi-layer all solid-state lithium metal batteries on the company’s continuous roll-to-roll production line. In October, Solid Power had announced the production and delivery of the company’s first-generation multi-layer, multi-ampere... Read more →

Rio Tinto, a leading global mining and metals company, and Nippon Steel Corporation, Japan’s largest steel producer, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) jointly to explore, develop and demonstrate technologies to transition to a low-carbon emission steel value chain. The purpose of the partnership is to explore a breadth... Read more →

In 2022, Mercedes-Benz’ global portfolio will include eight all-electric Mercedes-EQ models. The global Mercedes-Benz production network is ready for the company’s electric product offensive and is integrating its Mercedes-EQ models into series production in its existing plants. The EQS, the first electric luxury sedan from Mercedes-Benz, will start in the... Read more →

Volkswagen plans to connect its production facilities in Chattanooga (TN), Puebla and Silao (Mexico) with the global Industrial Cloud initiative from the Volkswagen Group and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The Industrial Cloud is an IT industrial platform, designed to gather and analyze data from all connected Volkswagen Group facilities on... Read more →

Porsche Digital is expanding its product portfolio. The digital assistant “Sounce” offers an improved ability to detect noise—for example, during vehicle component tests. Among other things, the aim is to improve the development and production of components in the automotive industry. The technology, which uses deep learning methods, can reliably... Read more →

Proterra has opened a new battery production line co-located in its EV bus manufacturing facility in Los Angeles County. The new battery production line will manufacture Proterra’s battery packs featuring next-generation cells. The facility will expand Proterra’s battery production capacity to meet growing demand for the company’s battery systems in... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Company announced an updated roadmap for its future business Strategy 2025 at the 2020 CEO Investor Day’\ forum held virtually in Seoul. The comprehensive mid- to long-term strategy reinforces Hyundai’s plan to lead the future mobility industry as a Smart Mobility Solution Provider. The updated Strategy 2025 roadmap... Read more →

INEOS Automotive has acquired the manufacturing facility at Hambach from Mercedes-Benz and will start to build its Grenadier 4x4 there in late 2021. The acquisition secures the future of the site and safeguards many jobs that might otherwise have been lost. Manufacturing at Hambach ensures that INEOS remains on track... Read more →

Lithium Australia subsidiary VSPC reports significant progress towards improving the energy density of LFP (lithium ferro phosphate) Li-ion battery cells by adjusting its proprietary manufacturing processes to incorporate manganese into the cathode active material during production. The addition of manganese to LFP (producing LMFP) improves LFP energy density while retaining... Read more →

Chinese medium and heavy rare earths producer Southern Rare Earth has continued to raise its weekly prices for terbium, holmium, gadolinium and dysprosium, supported by a shortage of spot supplies and firmer magnet demand, according to Argus. Restocking demand from magnet manufacturing plants started to recover from mid-October because of... Read more →

Audi is using augmented reality (AR) to plan complex logistics processes. The virtual presentation of three dimensional holograms that are shown in their actual environment helps planners to better evaluate the future situation. Because of this, prototypes of containers or equipment, etc., which are elaborate to produce, are no longer... Read more →

Australia-based Syrah Resources has completed a bankable feasibility study (BFS) for expansion of its natural graphite AAM facility in Vidalia, Louisiana, as it continues to execute its strategy of becoming the first vertically integrated producer of natural graphite AAM (advanced anode material) outside of China. The BFS confirms that 10ktpa... Read more →

Canada-based Standard Lithium Ltd. successfully completed the start-to-finish proof of concept of its lithium processing technology. Successful operation of the technology at pre-commercial continuous scale has directly extracted lithium from brine in Arkansas and produced a purified, concentrated intermediate product (LiCl solution) which has been converted to better than battery-quality... Read more →

Continental Structural Plastics (CSP) has fine-tuned its carbon fiber RTM (resin transfer molding) (CF-RTM) process to the point that a premium automaker will be using the technology for closures on future vehicle platforms. These doors will feature both inner and outer panels as well as structural reinforcements molded using CSP’s... Read more →

Daimler Truck AG and Beiqi Foton Motor Co., Ltd. jointly announced that both partners will produce and distribute Mercedes-Benz tractors for an advanced market segment in China. Based on Daimler Trucks’ global platform strategy, the companies’ joint venture Beijing Foton Daimler Automotive Co., Ltd. (BFDA) will localize new heavy-duty tractor... Read more →

Motiv Power Systems announced its newest generation of EPIC chassis for medium-duty electric fleets. The fifth-generation EPIC F-59 and E-450 chassis have reduced the total number of components in the electric powertrain by 30%, while also improving range, acceleration, and top speed. The fifth-generation EPIC chassis incorporate BMW’s commercially-proven, high-performance... Read more →

Hyundai Motor Group has unveiled its new Electric-Global Modular Platform (E-GMP), a dedicated battery electric vehicle (BEV) platform. Revealed online during an ‘E-GMP Digital Discovery’ event, the platform will serve as the core technology for Hyundai Motor Group’s next-generation BEV line-up. From 2021, the E-GMP will underpin a range of... Read more →

Lucid Motors announced completion of the first phase of construction at the new Lucid AMP-1 (Advanced Manufacturing Plant) factory in Casa Grande, AZ, with the commissioning of production equipment and processes underway ahead of start of production for Lucid Air in Spring of 2021. Lucid designed the AMP-1 with a... Read more →

General Motors Co. announced it has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Nikola Corporation for a global supply agreement to provide GM’s Hydrotec fuel cell system for Nikola’s Class 7/8 semi-trucks. The MoU replaces the previous agreement announced 8 September 2020. (Earlier post.) At that time, Nikola and GM... Read more →

The Product Development group at ArcelorMittal Tailored Blanks (AMTB) has developed a novel floor ring which integrates battery and occupant protection in battery electric vehicles (BEVs). The concept enables OEMs to integrate BEV powertrains in existing body architectures for internal combustion engine (ICE) models. The floor ring concept integrates passenger... Read more →

Volkswagen Group Components is the central supplier for the first models of the new Volkswagen ID. family and numerous other Group brand models based on the modular electric drive matrix (MEB). Volkswagen Group Components contributes around 40% of the overall added value of the first fully electric SUV by the... Read more →