Redwood Materials, the battery recycling venture founded by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, has signed an agreement to recycle scrap and defective battery cells for Envision AESC, which manufactures batteries for the Nissan LEAF in Smyrna, Tennessee. Recycling batteries is not only environmentally sound, but it may soon become an economic necessity, as demand for… Read more »
The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has released a report by Roskill that analyzes the EU’s nickel requirements for EV batteries within the context of the global market over a twenty-year forecast horizon to 2040. Against this demand backdrop, Roskill critically assessed the EU’s internal supply capabilities and identified the risk of future shortages…. Read more »
Charged has been reporting on electric trucks for a decade, but the electrification of real-world fleets has been frustratingly slow, and several would-be e-truck builders have gone bust waiting for fleet operators to conduct years-long pilots. Now we’re finally starting to see some large orders. Will 2021 be the year of the electric truck? A… Read more »
Formula E, the urban electric racing series, begins its seventh season, and its first as an official FIA World Championship, on February 26 and 27, with a nighttime double header on the streets of Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. This season’s events will be broadcast live in over 150 countries around the world. Formula E has inked… Read more »
Driving home the point that cars are computers, the global auto industry is reeling from a global shortage of microchips. Several major automakers have announced shutdowns or slowdowns because of the supply bottleneck. The shortage appears to have forced Tesla to briefly shut down its Model 3 production line at Fremont. An unnamed source told… Read more »
Aptera Motors has a very different strategy from that of most EV startups. Rather than a luxury sedan or a crowd-pleasing pickup truck, the San Diego-based company is building what it says will be the world’s most efficient vehicle—an EV with a solar panel on the roof, and as much as 1,000 miles of range…. Read more »
The Tennessee Valley Authority and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation have partnered to develop a statewide fast charging network. The plan is to add approximately 50 new charging locations, one every 50 miles, along Tennessee’s interstates and major highways. There are currently about 24 public fast charging locations in the state that support… Read more »
Silicon Mobility has announced the release of OLEA APP INVERTER, a software application platform for control of inverters and electric motors. The application is based on the OLEA T222 FPCUs parallel architecture, which allows real-time control of power electronics and motors. It provides torque and speed control using Field Oriented Control (FoC) and variable Space… Read more »
The Scottish city of Aberdeen has launched a fleet of 15 hydrogen-powered double-decker buses. Scotland’s third-largest city, Aberdeen is known as the Granite City or the Silver City, because of its many buildings made of locally-quarried granite. Since the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1970s, it has also been known as the offshore… Read more »
After deliberating about a long-overdue modernization of its vehicle fleet for nearly a decade, the US Postal Service has awarded a 10-year contract to Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Defense to manufacture a new generation of postal delivery vehicles. Under the contract’s initial $482-million investment, Oshkosh will finalize the production design of the Next Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV),… Read more »