Battery system manufacturer BMZ is launching a long-term cooperation with Samsung SDI, and plans to order just under $1 billion worth of Li-ion cells over the next five years. BMZ says its European automotive customers will double their EV production volumes in the coming year, and is responding by expanding manufacturing capacity of its Li-ion… Read more »
ZF Friedrichshafen, a German-based automotive driveline and chassis manufacturer, is set to invest €800 million in the electrification of its transmission technology. Over the next four years, ZF will put the investment into its primary transmission plant located in Saarbrücken, Germany. “The share of hybrid drives in production will increase tenfold over the next few… Read more »
Toshiba is removing its SCiB battery business from the Toshiba Infrastructure Systems & Solutions (TISS) subsidiary, and making it an independent business unit within Toshiba. By positioning the business as an independent operation, Toshiba says it hopes to remove layers of management and allow for more rapid decision-making. TISS will continue to handle business operations… Read more »
Erik Prince, founder of the controversial private military company Blackwater, has launched a fund to invest in metals used in EV batteries, he told the Financial Times. The fund aims to raise up to $500 million, and will invest in deposits of metals such as cobalt, copper and lithium, largely in Africa and Asia. Prince… Read more »
Sumitomo Electric’s new V-groove superjunction transistors, which it developed through a joint research project with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) use silicon carbide (SiC) semiconductors, and the company claims they offer the lowest on-state resistance yet achieved in an SiC transistor. Sumitomo has already developed V-groove MOSFETs that use a… Read more »
Shanghai-based EV maker Lvchi has partnered with Next-Battery to fast-track the commercial rollout of Next-Battery’s battery technology. At its Ukraine facility, Next-Battery is producing cathode prototypes with ultra-porous metal oxides and a lithium-infused nanostructured surface. The company’s proprietary process significantly increases the surface area of the metal oxides in the cathode, which allows dimension reduction… Read more »
Cambridge, Massachusetts-based 24M has raised $21.8 million in Series D funding, which it will use to accelerate production of its SemiSolid lithium-ion cells for the EV market. Ceramics manufacturer Kyocera and global trading firm Itochu led the financing round. Previous investors, including North Bridge Venture Partners, also participated. 24M introduced its SemiSolid battery design in… Read more »
Lithium-sulfur is seen as one of the most promising chemistries for the next generation of batteries, and the UK battery firm OXIS Energy has been developing the technology for some time. Now OXIS has announced that it will be one of 13 European partners in the Lithium Sulfur for Safe Road Electrification (LISA) project, which… Read more »
In-wheel motor pioneer Protean Electric has announced a collaboration with intelligent mobility specialist Human Horizons and Wuxi Weifu e-Drive Technology (a joint venture formed by Weifu Group and Protean to manufacture the ProteanDrive Pd18) to develop and manufacture in-wheel motors. The partners plan to build a production facility in China to deliver in-wheel motors at… Read more »
Belching cows aren’t the only source of CO2 emissions in the dairy industry. When tanker trucks collect milk from farms, they use their diesel engines to drive the pump that fills the tank. Now Swedish technology company Semcon has partnered with Enova and Tine, a Norwegian milk distributor, to develop an electric milk pump. By… Read more »