Considering the massive media coverage of Tesla over the last decade, it may seem surprising that there aren’t more books about the company. When I first released my history of Tesla in 2014, I expected to have a short window of exclusivity before a “real” book—one with a hard cover and celebrity blurbs on the… Read more »
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Toyota to invest $3.4 billion in US battery production
For the last decade, the policy of most legacy automakers has been to talk big about EVs, while doing little or nothing to sell any. Now, ironically, Toyota may be turning this time-honored formula backwards. The company broadcasts anti-EV misinformation in TV ads and executive speeches, and lobbies governments to water down support for EV… Read more »
Northvolt to invest $750 million to expand Swedish battery lab
Battery manufacturer Northvolt plans to invest $750 million to expand its laboratory facility in Sweden in order to meet soaring demand for lithium-ion batteries. Northvolt says it plans to set up the “first R&D campus covering the entire battery ecosystem.” The order of the day in Europe is to quickly expand domestic battery capacity to… Read more »
Volkswagen’s ID.4 electric crossover has it all—practical and fun
The Volkswagen ID.4, which went on sale in the US earlier this year, could turn out to be a very important vehicle for a couple of reasons. It’s the first of VW’s new-generation EVs to reach the US. That is, it’s the first to be built by the post-scandal, reformed and repentant VW, and the… Read more »
Tesla co-founder JB Straubel’s company to produce battery materials in US
Redwood Materials, the battery recycling venture founded by former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, came out of stealth mode last year, and announced that it is recycling scrap from Panasonic’s battery cell production at Tesla’s Gigafactory Nevada. In July, it raised $700 million in new investment. Now Redwood has dropped a bit of a bombshell: it… Read more »
Tesla says new recycling process recovers 92% of battery materials
Battery recycling will be a critical part of the future e-mobility ecosystem, as Tesla has understood from the beginning. The California carmaker has been working with various firms to recycle its end-of-life battery packs for several years. One of these is Tesla co-founder JB Straubel’s company, Redwood Materials, which is recycling scrap from Panasonic’s battery… Read more »
Five companies produce almost all EV battery cells for the US market
Five companies (AESC, LG Chem, Panasonic, Samsung and SK Innovation) produced almost all the battery cells used in plug-in vehicles for the US market over the past decade. Total capacity produced was 75,933 MWh. Panasonic supplied 74% of all the cells, and a majority of these were installed in Tesla battery packs. A small percentage… Read more »
Several battery suppliers are working on Tesla’s 4680 cells
Tesla says its new 4680 battery cell, unveiled at the 2020 Battery Day event, represents a “massive breakthrough” that could enable a new generation of cheaper EVs. However, some industry experts have predicted that mass-producing the new cells will not be easy. Concurrently with developing the new cells, Tesla has been broadening its battery supply… Read more »
Skeleton Technologies raises €70 million to develop EV batteries and supercapacitors
Skeleton Technologies, a maker of energy storage devices, has secured an additional €29 million in Series D financing, bringing its total Round D financing to €70.4 million. “Unlike Tesla, Panasonic or LG, who use similar raw materials and compete in engineering, Skeleton has focused on vertical integration based on our proprietary curved graphene material,” said… Read more »
Tesla signs new long-term battery cell supply agreement with CATL
As EVs move into mass production, the industry is going to need an insane—make that ludicrous—amount of batteries. Trendsetter Tesla long relied solely on Japan’s Panasonic for cells, but around the time production began at Gigafactory Shanghai, it started working with other suppliers, including Korea’s LG and China’s CATL. Tesla and CATL signed a supply… Read more »