South Korean battery manufacturer SK On has signed a joint development agreement (JDA) with US graphite company Westwater Resources (NYSE: WWR) as part of efforts to strengthen its battery raw material supply chain in North America. Under the agreement, the two companies will work together to develop environmentally responsible anode materials tailored for SK On… Read more »
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Aqua Metals produces high-purity lithium hydroxide directly from recycled Li-ion batteries
Battery recycler Aqua Metals has demonstrated the recovery of high-purity lithium hydroxide from lithium-ion battery black mass at the company’s Li AquaRefining recycling facility in Nevada. “The production and availability of the first recycled lithium hydroxide at scale will help close the supply chain loop for critical battery metals in America, paving the way for… Read more »
Automakers are shifting battery plant plans from Europe to the US. Does the European Commission have a solution?
Events in the EV industry are moving so fast that, even with the best will in the world, we journalists can publish things that turn out to be out of date or just plain wrong—when we do, a correction and a mea culpa are in order. In my latest Charging Forward column, which appears in… Read more »
US Postal Service finally places an order for EVs—but there’s a catch
After a two-year campaign to avoid electrifying its fleet, the US Postal Service has announced plans to do what it should have done in 2021. The agency will purchase 9,250 off-the-shelf Ford E-Transits as a first batch of replacements for its 30-year-old Grumman LLV delivery vehicles. Delivery of the EVs is expected to begin this… Read more »
Ford to build new LFP battery plant in Michigan
Ford plans to invest $3.5 billion to build an LFP battery plant in Marshall, Michigan. BlueOval Battery Park Michigan will initially employ 2,500 people when production begins in 2026. The automaker will offer LFP (lithium iron phosphate) as a second battery chemistry option in addition to NCM (nickel cobalt manganese), allowing customers to choose an… Read more »
Redwood Materials to receive $2-billion DOE loan, begins production of anode foil
Redwood Materials, the battery recycling firm headed by Tesla alum JB Straubel, has received conditional commitment for a $2-billion loan from the DOE’s Loan Program Office as part of the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program (ATVM). Redwood will draw upon this financing in tranches to support the phased construction and expansion of its battery… Read more »
This provision of the IRA could deliver much bigger results than the EV tax credits
The so-called Inflation Reduction Act includes a long list of measures intended to promote e-mobility and renewable energy. The one that’s gotten the most press is the revamped system of tax credits for EV purchases—and naturally so, because that’s the measure that most drivers can see benefitting them directly. However, as John Voelcker writes in… Read more »
A closer look at graphite—its forms, functions and future in EV batteries
Q&A with Graphex CEO John DeMaio Reading the EV press, you might assume that lithium, cobalt and nickel are the stars of the battery show—they get a lot of coverage, as pundits debate the relative merits of NMC and LFP cathode chemistries and agonize over looming shortages. Meanwhile, over in the anode, there’s an unsung… Read more »
Wolfspeed and ZF partner to develop silicon carbide semiconductors
Some European feathers have recently been ruffled by the “Buy American” provisions of the US Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Some say the EU needs to respond by increasing its own support of the EV industry in order to meet the threat from Chinese automakers. So it’s encouraging to see two high-tech companies… Read more »
Verifying the origin of EV battery materials at the source: Traceability challenges, Part Two
Q&A with Bureau Veritas’s Stéphane Ponthieux Traceability—the process of documenting the source of a product and the links in its supply chain, has long been important in various industries (aerospace, food, pharmaceuticals). It’s now becoming a hot topic in the EV industry, because the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), as well… Read more »