Newswire

New R&D partnership aims to put Québec in the Li-on battery race

Hydro-Québec and Nouveau Monde Graphite (NMG) have reached a research and licensing agreement that they hope will make Québec a contender in the booming battery business. The government-owned utility Hydro-Québec will assist NMG in developing small-scale mining operations to produce graphite which will be used as anode material for Li-on batteries. NMG’s graphite operation began… Read more »

EV startup NIO files for IPO

NIO, the Chinese EV startup backed by Tencent Holdings, has filed for a US initial public offering, Bloomberg reports. The Shanghai-based carmaker NIO (formerly known as NextEV) has submitted an initial confidential filing with the SEC, according to unnamed sources. The share sale, which could raise as much as $2 billion, is expected to take… Read more »

Novelis breaks ground on $300-million automotive aluminum facility in Kentucky

Aluminum rolling and recycling specialist Novelis has broken ground on a new $300-million automotive aluminum sheet manufacturing facility in Guthrie, Kentucky. The plant, with an annual nameplate capacity of 200,000 metric tons, will begin producing aluminum in 2020. The facility will include heat treatment and pre-treatment lines, which prepare aluminum for use in vehicle parts… Read more »

China developing battery tracking system to manage recycling

As China evolves into a world leader in battery and EV production, the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has announced plans to develop a system to track the fabrication, sale and recycling of EV batteries. The new “traceability management platform” will cover the entire lifecycle of batteries from production to recycling, clarifying who… Read more »

Heliox fast chargers power New Zealand’s first 10 electric double-decker buses.

Netherlands-based Heliox will supply fast charging for 10 electric double-decker buses that are to go into service in Wellington, New Zealand in July. The new e-buses, operated by local transit agency Tranzit, will be joined by another 10 in 2020 and another 12 in 2021. Heliox’s charging network includes a CCS plug-in system for depot… Read more »

Geely to incorporate Maxwell ultracapacitors in 2020 vehicles

Ultracapacitor specialist Maxwell Technologies (Nasdaq: MXWL) has formed a technology partnership with Zhejiang Geely, the Chinese parent company of Volvo and Geely Auto to integrate ultracaps and power conversion electronics into Geely’s global vehicle lineup. Geely will include Maxwell’s ultracapacitor-based peak power subsystem in five mild hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles for the North American… Read more »

Nissan, Renault to buy EV batteries from CATL

Chinese battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) will be providing batteries for Nissan’s Sylphy electric sedan, which is scheduled to hit the Chinese market in the latter half of the year. This marks the company’s first deal with a Japanese automaker. The Sylphy, one of 20 electrified vehicles Nissan plans to release in China… Read more »

ARPA-E to award $30 million to develop grid energy storage technologies

The DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) is wasting no time after its recent near-death experience (the president’s proposed budget would have eliminated the agency, but cooler heads in Congress prevailed): it has announced up to $30 million in funding for a new program called Duration Addition to electricitY Storage (DAYS), which has a goal… Read more »

Critical Materials Institute to address lithium and cobalt demand

As the market for plug-in vehicles grows, so does the demand for the materials associated with production, particularly lithium and cobalt, which are used in Li-on batteries. The DOE’s Critical Materials Institute (CMI) is focused on recycling and reducing the demand for rare metals that may experience shortages in the future. The agency is also… Read more »